If you’ve ever been sick or injured but not to the extent that you are prioritized in an emergency room triage, then you’ve probably spent hours waiting in the ER for treatment. After that, you’ve probably paid an exorbitant amount for your hospital bill if you’re not covered by your insurance (or if you don’t have insurance at all).
These are just some of the challenges that many patients face when it comes to healthcare. If you want to help alleviate or eliminate these issues, it may be time to consider urgent care business franchising opportunities.
Urgent care franchises aim to provide treatment outside of a hospital to make it easier for patients to receive affordable care. Here are some of the problems that these healthcare franchises aim to solve:
1. Waiting times
Imagine being ill or injured and spending hours in the emergency waiting room just to receive treatment. Of course, a hospital has to follow the triage process. However, the necessity of following the triage does not change the fact that patients are uncomfortable and inconvenienced, even if they are only mildly ill.
This problem is one of the biggest ones that urgent care franchises aim to solve. When you go to an urgent care franchise instead of a hospital, you are treated immediately without the need for an appointment. However, some patients should go to the emergency room directly, such as those with life-threatening injuries, but for those with conditions that are considered non-urgent in a hospital, going to an urgent care franchise is a more convenient choice.
2. Referrals and appointments
In a traditional hospital setting, you would have to get a referral from your doctor to see a specialist. And every step of the way, you would have to secure an appointment to seek treatment. In most urgent care franchises, you don’t need to have a referral from your doctor and nor do you need to have an appointment. Patients can simply walk in and get treatment for their ailments, hassle-free.
3. High medical costs
Another issue that healthcare franchises want to address is exorbitant hospital fees. When a patient doesn’t have insurance (or was treated for a non-covered condition), the cost of healthcare can be way too high even for such a simple illness or injury. For this reason, many healthcare franchises make it their mission to provide affordable healthcare for all, regardless if a patient has insurance or not.
4. Hospital-acquired illnesses
The volume of sick patients in a hospital is definitely larger than that of a healthcare franchise. And with sick people waiting for hours in the ER, the spread of viruses goes at a much faster rate. Unlike going to a regular hospital, seeking treatment in a healthcare franchise decreases the risk of catching any illnesses from other patients, most especially life-threatening infections.
An urgent care franchise aims to provide affordable and comprehensive care to patients while making everything convenient for them. Although some conditions still need to go straight to a hospital ER, many patients with non-life-threatening conditions can enjoy easy and accessible care in an urgent care franchise facility.