Does the winter season have you feeling under the weather? Are you debating whether to make an appointment with your usual doctor or go sit for hours in your local emergency room? Fortunately for you, there is a third option that you may not have considered. Your local urgent care center may be just the place for you. Here are some reasons why you should consider them:

Shorter wait: When you make an appointment with your doctor, it could be days before he or she has an open slot. When you're feeling really awful, you don't want to have to wait days to feel better. You want to feel better now. If you go to the emergency room, on the other hand, it could be hours before you're seen. People who have or who are experiencing heart attacks, stroke, gunshot wounds and other traumatic incidents are going to be placed ahead of anyone who is simply not feeling well. On the other hand, when you go to an urgent care center, everyone should be seen in the order that they arrive. Instead of waiting for hours and hours as sicker people go ahead of you, you should be seen in a much quicker time frame.

Real doctors: Some people may be under the impression that the medical staff who are employed at an urgent care center aren't really doctors. Actually, you should be seeing either a doctor or a nurse practitioner, both of whom spent many years in medical school. When you visit an urgent care center, you don't have to worry about only being seen by a less-medically-skilled office assistant. The doctor or nurse practitioner is also able to write prescriptions as needed for whatever it is that ails you.  

On-site pharmacies: Sometimes, the worst part about visiting a doctor or the emergency room is stopping off at the pharmacy on the way home. When you're ill, you probably just want to get home and climb into bed. While not all urgent care centers have an on-site pharmacy, many of them do offer this convenience. Instead of driving across town and waiting a long time for your prescription to be filled, you simply need to go over to the urgent care center's pharmacy. Because they should already have any relevant insurance information, they should also be able to get you out the door much quicker than a pharmacy that is located inside of a grocery or drug store. If you're not sure whether or not your local urgent care center has a pharmacy, give them a call to find out (such as Premier Urgent Care Centers of California, Inc.).