Your first call should be to your primary care physician. If you cannot reach your physician, you may wait until your primary care physician s office is open the next day or, if you need to obtain treatment sooner, you may need to consider going to an urgent care facility. Urgent care facilities handle less serious health problems that require quick attention. Urgent health problems usually develop over a few hours. Most urgent care problems would seriously worsen if not treated within 24 hours.
Many facilities are open later into the evening and during the weekend.
Urgent care services can help prevent serious deterioration of your health due to unexpected illness or injury. Your primary care physician may want you to come into the office or may recommend an M-CARE participating urgent care facility. If you are unable to reach your physician and you cannot wait until the next day, refer to the list of M-CARE participating urgent care facilities on the next page . It is important to remember to contact your primary care physician after a visit to an urgent care facility to allow for coordination of your medical care. Your primary care physician must provide or authorize whatever follow-up care is necessary to treat you.