Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
They came to NYC later than some cities, and I find them perturbing, because they're a sign that the public is being failed both by their own doctors and by hospitals ERs. (It reminds me of Fedex, which only exists because the postal system was failing.)
I'd been thinking about it particularly after this article about all the heathcare advertising, and it's certainly true that hospitals are advertising up a storm.
The health care industry spent $14 billion on advertising in 2014, according to Kantar Media, a jump of nearly 20 percent since 2011.
Ask Your Doctor if This Ad Is Right for You
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
Part of the issue is many people don't have a primary care doctor to call when they're sick. Or when they do, the doctors schedule doesn't allow for squeezing a patient in. They definitely fill the void in such scenarios. Too many people still head to the ER for non-emergent issues. Urgent cares can handle the majority of cases people head to the ER for.
Urgent care is an alternative to emergency room visits, which are very expensive and can have excruciatingly long wait times for non-life-threatening emergencies. They're also great for out-of-town visitors who need medical care for something relatively small, and I've used them for that purpose in other cities before they were more common here. They can be a bridge for medical care if it's a holiday or the middle of the night and your own personal MD is away and no one is covering for him/her. And lastly they can be the ones to tell you that you really do need to visit the hospital ER when you might have thought you didn't.
They can't and shouldn't be asked to solve all the problems of the health care delivery system. But they do fill some holes in it. And I'm not aware of any advertising for CityMD or places like that. Where are those ads for urgent care? Subway? Bus? Radio and TV?
I've been to a few of them over the years since they've popped up a lot in this city. Most of the posters said the perks of what the provide. Just be careful about getting ripped off. The medical coders and admin staff at these places are generally under-par and make TONS of mistakes, and lots of them in certain neighborhoods are major fraud operations.
The city MD one I went to a few years ago wound up screwing me up hardcore with the wrong medication prescribed which turned into a nightmare that I had to see a specialist and my general GP for.
I don't understand why the city is not investing in public urgent care facilities. Right now it is just expensive for profit facilities for the most part, which usually means low-income New Yorkers can't go. Especially medicaid recipients. Especially with the costly reliance of New Yorkers on ERs, this should be a no brainer for NYC Health+Hospitals. Every NYC Health+Hospital facility should have an Urgent Care, and there should be scatter site NYC HH Urgent Cares. This would drastically reduce ER usage and speed up wait at ERs.
City MD advertises all over the place. I see the ads on subways, streets, buses. They do accept the new Obama medicaid plans.
The problem is that you can no longer get same day appointments. You used to be able to call your gp in the morning and describe the bad cough, fever, sore throat and you would get seen that day. The GP also saw kids. Now your "main doctor or general" doctor is an internist or for your kids the pediatrician. The internist does not make same day appointments. It would be better if you could see a doctor who knows you and your history, but you can't always wait a week. The ER was always a pain and it's good that there are now alternatives to going there, even for possible fractures. When you go to urgent care, it's like going to Supercuts. You never know who is going to treat you and even if you get the same doctor a few times, he/she will be working somewhere else within the year. Now we have internet doctors through skype. But i'm holding out for the hologram doctor who says "please state the medical emergency" after you turn him on.
I cut my finger pretty bad on Sunday with a knife. I was avoiding a trip to the ER due to the long long waits, even with blood gushing out. I decided to go to a urgent center in Howard Beach and I was in and out in 30 min with 4 stitches.
CityMD is great. It's much more convenient than spending hours at the ER for something that isn't truly an emergency, but that I want to get checked out today, as opposed to waiting possibly weeks for an appointment with my doctor.
With my insurance, it doesn't cost me a dime, and I'm usually in and out in well under an hour.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
