Walk in clinic can also be recognized as suitable Care Clinic (CCC), is the type of clinics to serve the routine family illness and informal health problems.

1. Concept of Walk-in Clinics
Walk in clinic can also be recognized as suitable Care Clinic (CCC), is the type of clinics
to serve the routine family illness and informal health problems. These can be located in
markets, shopping malls and pharmacies etc. Walk in clinic provides an affordable cost,
fast and handy health care, while you are suffering with some routine type of issue and
you are not capable to wait for longer time duration to get some specialist’s appointment.
These provide instant medical treatment for non-life threatening injury and illness.
Usually at some walk in clinic, you have to pay by yourself on the same visit unlike the
hospitals where they bill you or to cover your company. At some walk in clinic you do
not need to get any appointment before time but if they are having many patient visitors
then you may have to wait for your turn. At such walk in clinic often some staff nurse
along with nurse practitioner or doctor serves the visitors.
Walk in clinic is small in size and bears limited resources and remains open for longer
time durations in a day. It has the advantage that there can be taken care of emergencies
which are not much serious and you do not need to wait for a longer time duration to get
served and quite inexpensive too. It usually has the laboratory, X-Ray and Ultrasound
facility as well and some people call it urgent care clinic too. Some other conventions
which can be used to call are retail based clinics or walk-in medical clinics. Currently,
there are over 1,000 CCCs (Walk in Clinic) located throughout the United States. Most
clinics are open seven days a week, twelve hours a day during the workweek and eight
hours a day on the weekends. It is expected that the number of Walk in Clinic (s) will rise
dramatically in near future due to their instant and cost effective nature.
Walk in clinic (s) provides preventive care service including health screening,
vaccinations, and physical exams. They sometime also serve as sample collection points
for blood, urine and feces for laboratory tests as well, if they don’t have their own
laboratory infrastructure, and then these samples are sent to some renowned lab to get the
detailed investigation reports. A walk in clinic can offer a narrow range of services which
is usually limited to 25 - 30 of the most common diagnoses. Such limited scope of
services is seen in both nurse practitioner and physician-staffed walk in clinic (s).
Normally walk in clinic provides the following range of services in the treatment of
common family illnesses;
• Cold and Flu
• Sinus Infections or Upper Respiratory Infections
• Allergies
• Dental Care
• Minor Injuries, Burns, Sprains and Rashes
• Bladder Infections
• Pink Eye or Styles
• Sore or Strep Throat
• Headaches
• Influenza and Common Cold Symptoms
• Head lice
• Ringworms
• Minor Injuries
• Medicine or Chemical Reaction

2. • Warts
• Sprains and Strains
• Skin Conditions, Such as Warts or Eczema
• Bronchitis
• Ear Infections, Earache and Fever
• Flu or Tetanus Vaccinations
• Pregnancy Tests
• Urinary Tract Infections
• Diarrhea and Intestinal Infections
Such emergencies which are life endangering demands proper care and in any of
following condition it is advised to directly go for hospital emergency instead of clinics;
• Serious Chest Pain and Shortness of Breath
• Major Burns
• Life Threatening Head Traumas
• Emergency Childbirth
• Seizures
• Bleeding that does not stop
• Drug Over Dose or other Toxic Condition
• Life Threatening Injuries
Many managed care organizations (MCOs) now encourage their customers to utilize the
urgent care option. The Urgent Care Association of America established criteria for
urgent care centers (Walk in clinic) in April 2009. This criterion defines scope of service,
hours of operation, and staffing requirements. Information and Certification criteria are
available to the public at;
http://www.ucaoa.org/recognition_certification_criteria.php
Instant Medical Care is one of the good providers which are providing health care &
Walk in clinics services to people in distress.