Got an Eyeball Urgency? Go See Your Eye Doctor!
For a while there, it seemed like there was an Urgent Care or Quick Care clinic popping up on every corner. My family has taken advantage of this convenience on more than one occasion for the acute but not too worrisome malady. And usually it’s the after normal work hours variety.
It’s all about the convenience. We like our frozen veggies pre-cut, our floors vacuumed by robots, our dress shirts wrinkle-free. Don’t feel like reaching all the way into your pocket to check your messages? Just look at your watch. I get it!
As evidenced by their popularity, Urgent Care Clinics fill a need that is brought about by the inefficiencies and expense of traditional hospital emergency rooms, along with difficulties of getting into a primary care physician’s office on short notice. In our practice, we often see patients who initially sought care for their eye problems at an urgent care clinic. The eye care provided at urgent care varies widely depending on the comfort level of the provider and the equipment available to them in that setting for examining eyes. These eye problem follow-up visits are often routine, and the problem is resolved or resolving. However, sometimes the clinician was unable to adequately diagnose the issue due to limitations of the urgent care setting. In these cases, the original condition is still lingering or maybe even worsening. This is not a reflection on the quality of care provided at urgent care clinics, just a sign of those limitations.
As eye doctors, we like for our patients to see us for their eye problems. It’s what we do! So don’t hesitate to call us for the untimely, inconvenient, and unpredictable eye issues that pop up. We provide on-call emergency care 24 hours a day and seven days a week through our doctor on-call.
As discussed in previous blogs, the presence of vision insurance in addition to a patient’s medical insurance can cause confusion. Even if you have only visited our office in the past for “routine” care involving glasses and contact lenses, know that our doctors have vast experience diagnosing and treating acute and chronic eye health issues. If you have used vision insurance for routine visits in the past, you can use your medical insurance for problem-based visits in our office.
The most common reasons patients seek urgent eye care are for symptoms of pink eye, flashes/floaters, painful eye, sudden changes in vision, and many more. So don’t ignore those inconvenient eye problems when they occur and we can help to treat them promptly and urgently as possible.
