(Besides, feeling an abrupt stomach pain or a pinging discomfort, you are hardly going to sit there for a long time waiting some sort of test… Not to mention that you might not even want to visit an emergency room at the hospital.) However, what you want is not always what you get. People frequently visit an urgent care instead, where you can get quick, low-cost treatment for minor, common issues. But on some other occasions, you will need more of a testing – for example, if you are participating in screening – and this will have to be arranged somewhere else. So, can urgent care get an ultrasound? What tests does urgent care do ultrasound for? If you want to know what to expect when you visit urgent care in terms of tests and diagnosis, read on.
Understanding Ultrasounds
Before you even ask yourself whether urgent cares have ultrasounds, it might first be helpful to know what an ultrasound is, and why you might even need one in the first place. An ultrasound (also known as sonography) is ‘an imaging technique that involves the passage of sound waves through the body to create images of the inside of your body’, used to do things such as:
Monitor pregnancies
- Detect abnormalities in organs such as the liver, kidneys, and heart
- Diagnose soft tissue injuries like muscle tears
- Examine blood flow in arteries and veins
Nowadays, ultrasounds prove to be valuable when diagnosed a medical condition and to set up a plan of treatment, do urgent care centers provide such imaging?
Do Urgent Cares Do Ultrasounds?
The obvious response is ‘yes but not all urgent care centres’. This can be a tricky issue, which is why you’ll likely want to stick with your primary care paediatrician (or, during those times they’re off, his stand-in) for well child check-ups and for the clicky babies and parents. But most of the time, when a child gets the flu and falls on his sofa moaning and collapsing (this happened to me this summer) or he starts groaning because the toe he stubbed is on fire, then urgent care centres are a convenient place to be seen on the same day. US availability at an urgent care centre can vary, dependent on the size and resources of the individual urgent care sites.
Although we learn to use ultrasound in many urgan care clinics, not all of them can take X-rays or blood work, and few have the unique localised skill required to provide an ultrasound. When they do offer one, they have strict protocols in place; electrically-guided ultrasounds are often performed by a sonographer or radiologist.
Why Don’t All Urgent Cares Do Ultrasounds?
That in itself – from large central stations to smaller urgent care clinics – means that ultrasound machines are extraordinarily expensive, and in need of frequent replacement since they are much more sophisticated than diagnostic machines (such as X-rays). They require operating equipment and staff to run them, and trained staff to interpret the findings.
This isn’t an indictment of clinics that provide onsite ultrasound, as virtually every urgent care centre has hospital or radiology centre partners that they can refer you to for an ultrasound if that’s what you need.
Common Conditions Requiring Ultrasounds at Urgent Care
Not all urgent care centres have an ultrasound, but those that do can diagnose a number of conditions. Here is an example of the fact that you might have to visit an urgent care centre to get an ultrasound for some of the health conditions listed below.
- Abdominal Pain
If you’re having, for example, severe right-sided abdominal pain, urgent care will likely use an ultrasound to look for gallbladder stones, kidney stones or appendicitis – conditions that are usually easily recognised by imaging not likely to lead to severe damage if diagnosed.
- Pelvic Pain or Concerns
A busy practice might utilise this tool in an urgent care centre, to rule out an ectopic pregnancy or look for ovarian cysts or to ensure a pregnancy is progressing normally in the early gestational period.
- Soft Tissue Injuries
A sprain, strain or tear of a soft tissue (muscle or tendon) can result from any activity, not just sports, and can be evaluated by an athletic trainer at an urgent care to determine the nature and severity of the injury.
- Blood Clots
More often, an ultrasound will be performed to rule out blood clots, particularly following an acute presentation of symptoms, such as leg pain, swelling, or sudden shortness of breath, which may be associated with a more serious aetiology, such as DVT.
Can Urgent Care Do Ultrasounds for Pregnancy?
A fairly typical question is: ‘Do urgent cares do ultrasounds?’ Answer: ‘Overall, yes, some urgent cares do ultrasound for pregnancy, but, over all, most urgent cares do pregnancy ultrasounds only a limited number of times and/or only in the following situations:’
Early pregnancy concerns, like abdominal pain or bleeding
Checking the viability of pregnancy, especially if there are concerns of miscarriage
Ruling out ectopic pregnancy, a condition where the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus
But most routine pregnancy or to check foetal growth, occur at an OB/GYN clinic or the hospital; it’s best to call your usual clinician or midwife for non-medical emergency ultrasounds.
When to Choose Urgent Care for an Ultrasound
But urgent care visit for an ultrasound is exactly the right place and the right moment:
- Non-Emergency, Immediate Care
If your pain or symptoms are moderately benign – and/or you are pretty sure that they are critical and life-threatening, but that they can be dealt with quickly – the obvious choice is an urgent-care centre that offers ultrasound, such as a pelvic pain, suspected gallstones or blood clots.
- After-Hours Medical Issues
The best thing about urgent care centres is that most of them are open late at night and– ultrasound diagnostics will give you almost immediate access if your doctor’s office happens to be closed or you’re awakened from a sound sleep with your ankle aching and you think you might have a blood clot.
- Avoiding ER Crowds
In terms of time-sensitive conditions that you want to get diagnosed as soon as possible but don’t really qualify as an emergency, an urgent care centre will prevent you from ending up in the ER waiting rooms and will also reduce ER costs. Availability of ultrasound will get you care even faster.
- Cost-Effective Care
Unless you go to an ER, urgent care centres are likely cheaper for diagnostic services than an emergency room, and if you’re not having an emergency, go to an urgent care centre before you go and hope for the best at the ER. Last but not least, if you’re uninsured and need an ultrasound, first check around an urgent care centre before you go; that’s where save the most money.
Conclusion
Hurried Care: OK, so do urgent-cares do ultrasound? Hurried Care: Well, some do but not necessarily all of them. Whether or not you’ll get ultrasound at the urgent care will depend on: 1. Whether that clinic has the equipment and resources and 2. Whether they have the people with the special training. So, if you need to get those quicker diagnostic services on a non-emergency basis, I recommend calling them before you come in.
If your gut tells you that you have a problem – stomach ache, a soft tissue injury, a blood clot – and you want it ruled out as soon as possible with a cheap and easily accessible test, then an urgent care centre that offers ultrasounds might be the best course of action. But as a source of pregnancy tests and it’s probably better to go elsewhere.
If you’re not sure if urgent care is right for you, you can always call a clinic directly, or check in with your PCP to make sure the care you’re getting is right for your particular situation.
