If you are at the point in your cold that you need to visit a twenty-four-hour urgent care you still have some options. Usually you will have a few local to you. Look up the address and phone number for all of your local urgent care locations. It is best to actually have this information printed and handy so when you do get sick you won’t have to research at all. Call around and find out which one has the shortest wait time. During the flu season it is not uncommon to experience higher than normal wait times. If you are fortunate enough to live near two or three urgent care locations, you can then visit the one with the shortest wait time. When you are sick and feeling miserable the last thing you want to do is wait any longer than necessary in a waiting room. If you are running a temperature, feeling dizzy or having stomach troubles you may want to find a friend, neighbor or family member to drive you. Driving while actively sick is risky and you would not want to end up in an accident.
There are some situations where an urgent care is not the right place to visit. If you are experience shortness of breath, chest pains, faintness or a reaction to a medication you will want to bypass the twenty-four-hour urgent care and either call for an ambulance or get a ride to a emergency room at a hospital. If you show up to an urgent care with these symptoms they will most likely call an ambulance for you. Urgent cares are excellent at diagnosing illnesses and performing minor diagnostic tests, but they do not have surgical units or all of the equipment that actual hospitals have. After your visit at the urgent care follow up with your primary care physician so they are aware that you received medical treatment.