How Urgent Care Is Changing Occupational Medicine
Urgent care clinics began popping up in the U.S. in the 1970s as an alternative to the after-hours care available at crowded emergency rooms, where nonemergency treatment was becoming increasingly expensive and inconvenient. Initially, urgent care patients typically sought walk-in care for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries when same-day appointments weren’t available at their primary doctor’s office.
However, as walk-in urgent care centers evolved over time, the scope of medical services they offered to patients on short notice expanded to include many types of routine health care. The timing was ideal, as Americans found themselves juggling career and family obligations in increasingly jam-packed schedules. More and more of them turned to urgent care centers to meet medical needs that couldn’t be squeezed into the weekday hours of the typical doctor’s clinic.
As a result, some urgent care clinics—including Cape Regional Urgent Care in Cape May County, New Jersey—rose to the occasion by equipping their facilities with on-site labs and X-ray machines. These diagnostic tools in the hands of highly qualified doctors enabled walk-in clinics to provide effective, same-day treatment that led to faster recovery times for their patients. What’s more, this advanced, on-site equipment also made urgent care centers the perfect source for many types of occupational medicine.
Exactly What Is Occupational Medicine?
Also known as occupational health care, this type of medicine focuses on job-related medical services. Employers have long recognized the value of pre-employment exams that evaluate the fitness of potential new hires to carry out their job duties. However, as the threats to workplace safety posed by substance abuse and contagious diseases have skyrocketed, so has the need for occupational health services that include drug screenings and other types of lab testing. Additionally, employers are obligated by workers’ compensation regulations to provide medical treatment to their employees who are injured on the job.
Thanks to on-site lab testing and X-ray equipment, many urgent care centers are the ideal providers of efficient, affordable occupational health services in cases where illness or injury doesn’t require high-tech emergency room treatment. Busy employees can get employment testing, physical exams, flu shots, and other work-related vaccinations without making an appointment, even on the weekends. Employers can partner with an urgent care center to provide ongoing occupational health services as needed, thus eliminating the inefficiency of assigning staff to look for an appropriate provider on a case-by-case basis.
Occupational Medicine at Cape Regional Urgent Care
Employers and their employees in Cape May County, NJ, will find a reliable partner for occupational health care when they turn to Cape Regional Urgent Care. We have urgent care locations in the north, south, and central parts of the county, and all three of them are open to walk-in patients during extended hours every day of the week. This makes our urgent care clinics a convenient source for many job-related medical services, including:
- Employment exams and drug screenings
- COVID-19 testing
- Evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening on-the-job injuries
- And many others
We can also set up an employer-paid occupational medicine program, which means your employees won’t have to deal with a potentially burdensome reimbursement process.
To learn more about how Cape Regional Urgent Care is providing top-caliber occupational medicine in Cape May County, contact us today. If you’re an employer with workers in the Cape May County area, we’d be happy to provide you with details about our employer-paid services program.
