MedStar Urgent Care: Syeda Qadri, M.D.

"If you’ve paid attention to your neighborhood strip mall over the last few years, chances are at least one new urgent care clinic has moved in. The clinics, which are run by doctors and typically open 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, offer quick and convenient care for a range of non-emergency conditions. Think along the lines of treating a bad flu, a twisted ankle, or a nasty cut that needs stitches — the kind of stuff that may seem too minor for a trip to the emergency room but too serious to wait for an appointment at your doctor’s office. There are an estimated 7,000 urgent care centers in the U.S. today, according to the Urgent Care Association of America, and the industry is growing at a rapid clip. Since 2011, 600 new urgent care clinics have opened per year, double the rate from 2008 to 2010. And that overall number could be much higher, as there is no federal agency assigned to track openings. The current count is based on a manual tally by the UCAOA, the industry’s main trade group. Urgent care isn’t an entirely new phenomenon. The practice has been around since the 1970s, but the real boom occurred in the last seven years or so. It’s not hard to see the appeal of quick and efficient medical care in today’s healthcare landscape, especially when it can be done cheaply. More Americans today have health care than ever before, but the proliferation of high deductible health plans, which require patients to often pay thousands of dollars out of pocket before insurance kicks in, can make even a routine doctor’s visit cost prohibitive. The average deductible for a family in the U.S. was $4,522 in 2013, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. If you’re too sick for a regular doctor but can avoid going to an emergency room, you could potentially save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars by visiting an urgent care clinic. A 2009 study by the Annals of Internal Medicine found that the average cost of an urgent care visit for three illnesses was $155, compared to $570 at an emergency room. " Web Article, Mandi Woodruff, Yahoo! Finance August 17, 2015