Urgent Care Unscripted

Welcome back to Urgent Care Unscripted,
where we dive into real conversations

about health, wellness,
and what really goes on behind

urgent care.

I'm Barbara Ron Alter, I'm
the director of operations

and business development for AFC
Urgent Care in West Haven.

And this is Mohammad Zamani.

I'm the owner and franchisee
of the Urgent Care of West Haven.

Today we'll be talking about
an interesting topic.

It's about like when,
people are already under way

or sitting in the urgent care clinic,
but have not thought about in advance

how to make the best use of your time

at the clinic,
or how to maximize their visit at the.

Absolutely. We see this every day.

People come into the clinic,

they're in a rush, and today
we're going to break it down.

How to make things
a little bit faster for them.

And one of the things we're going to cover
today is what to bring

and how to prepare for your visit.

We're also going
to talk about communication

and how to communicate effectively
with your provider.

And your clinic,
and tips on how to make the,

the best of your visit make it smoother
so you get the most of your visit.

And just let's start from the beginning
before you have even started.

What can you do?

You could make an appointment or you could
walk in both options that are available

typically at all urgent care,
especially at our urgent care West Haven.

But making an appointment in advance
actually save you some time.

You spend less time,

filling in the forms at the front desk,
and you get to see the provider sooner.

And that helps you.

That helps the clinic keep, the operation.

Yes. It's absolutely.

It's a big time saver.

Definitely speeds up the process
when you come in and all your paperwork

is already completed.

Obviously, not everybody
has the time to do it ahead of time.

So you can definitely come into the clinic
and do the paperwork there, but

we'll definitely get you in and out way
faster if you get that done beforehand.

Talking about paperwork,
what are the two main, paperwork?

That sounds very easy.

That's it's
your photo ID and your insurance card.

Without a photo ID.

It could be a physical form of ID,
or it could be a digital form of ID,

but without the photo ID becomes
very difficult to see a patient.

So we ask that you make sure that,
before we have stepped into the clinic,

you know, you got a digital version
of the old and a physical version.

And obviously having the insurance
card helps out.

Yeah.

And, the next thing that I just kind of

want to point out regarding this visit
and making it faster is communication.

So one big thing is making sure
you're effectively

communicating what it is
that you need at the time of your visit.

Keep in mind that it's an urgent care.

Typically our time is limited,
unfortunately.

So if you're coming in and you have,
you know, a couple of symptoms,

you want to make sure you're addressing
your most important symptom.

First, you want to
the one that you want to resolve today.

So if you're coming in with various things
like a sore throat, but you also have,

you know, your back has been hurting
for three months,

you might want to address your sore throat
first and then you can either touch

we can touch on your

your back pain later,
or you can come in a couple of days later.

Or we can schedule follow up to kind of
go more into depth on those symptoms.

And just expanding on what Barbara
just said, about planning ahead.

Like she said, you could come in with many
different symptoms or treatment needs.

It could be one.

It could be multiple.

But planning ahead? Definitely. How?

Because that keeps the process efficient.

That helps the provider plan ahead
and save you time.

That brings a good example of a patient
that came in

actually this patient
and Barbara can expand more on that.

She, wanted to be seen in 45 minutes
during her lunch break.

The best thing she could have done
is she called us

around 11, that, hey,
can you accommodate my need?

I have to be seen.

I have, such and such, concerns,
but I only have 45 minutes

because she called ahead.

We could plan with her.
She could plan with us.

And she was in and out in 45 minutes.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's definitely not something we can
accommodate for every single patient.

But if we know ahead of time,
we can let you know what to expect.

If it was something that we couldn't

accommodate at the time of her visit,
we would have told her.

Yeah. So transparency.

Like she said, it goes both ways.

If you communicate to us, then it becomes
the, clear communication from both ends.

We know what your expectations are
and you know what you can do or not.

For the time you can afford
to spend at the urgent care.

And then we can set up a realistic
expectation of when you should come,

how long you can expect to receive
and when you can actually get out.

to make things a little bit faster
for the patients too.

We make sure we send
all of our prescriptions electronically.

I know that some providers might still do
paper or might call in the prescriptions.

One thing that we like to do

is send over the prescriptions
directly to the pharmacy, and making sure

that is also done effectively
and as fast as we possibly can.

I think, Muhammad,

do you want to go a little bit
about some final tips and what else? Yes.

So everybody knows
it's an urgent care. Right.

So you come in here for a few, Covid
testing or, you have a fever

or you want to do a physical,
like a physical

or annual physical, all of those things,
we can accommodate that.

But then there is a difference

between us and and, emergency room. Right.

So if you have a chest pain,
if you have difficulty breathing

or if you have some kind of a sign
that's symptomatic of a stroke,

this would not be the place
you would be best served

if you immediately contact,
an emergency room

or a hospital to get the boxes
so you can have some of those.

Absolutely. And feel free to call us.

We can definitely give you some advice.

We can't obviously give you medical advice
over the phone, but if you tell us

what your symptoms are, we can best advise
you on whether to come in and see us,

or if we think that you would be better
served at an emergency room.

We do understand emergency rooms
wait time can be a little bit longer,

but when it comes to an urgent care,
there could be some circumstances

where we are limited
to what we can do within our walls.

So definitely costs ahead.

And let us know what your situation is.

If you are unsure about where to go.

To wrap up,
I think we want to just talk about,

you know, book online
big, big, big help for you.

Bring your ID and your insurance card,
make sure you're focused and direct

with your provider.

Tell us upfront
if you're on a time crunch.

Ask if we can,
if there's anything we can do

and obviously be open and clear
with your provider.

So communication is key.

And with that note on communication,
we'll catch you next time.

Until then, subscribe to urgent Care.

Crystal,
this is Mohamed, and would you like,

see you next time.

See you next time.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

And we are at 354
Sawmill Road in West Haven.

And come see us anytime you need us.