Please Bother Me! That’s What I’m Here For

Twice in the last two weeks, I’ve talked with patients who have had urgent issues pop up after-hours. Both were in the realm of “cough and cold.” One person had symptoms that were probably flu, and the other had strep throat. Both patients decided to head to an urgent care clinic and got good treatment, though it was expensive. 

One of them said “I didn’t want to bother you.”

And that made me stop and think — how do my patients know when to go to the emergency room, and when to use an urgent care center? And when should they call me instead?

Well, the simple answer is that if you think you need an ER, call 911 or go in. But if you're trying to decide between urgent care and calling me, call me. My patients have my phone number and when they call or text me, I’m the one answering the phone. 

Since this is a DPC (Direct Primary Care) practice, we have fewer patients than a typical medical office. When you call, we know who you are. I can give you a level of care that you just won’t get in an urgent care, because I know you well and provide continuity of care. 

DPC practices save money for everyone, too. Even though an urgent care visit is a lot less expensive than a trip to the ER, it can still set you back $200-$300. If you save only a couple of trips to urgent care a year, you’ve paid for half of your entire Nexus DPC membership!

A few common things I want you to call me for are:

Strep throat
We can ask a few simple questions to determine if you need antibiotics. Sometimes we need to get a strep test, which we do in the office (and it costs you nothing extra).

UTI (Urinary Tract Infection)
If you have a vagina and you’ve ever had UTI symptoms, you almost certainly know when you’ve got one. I will probably call in some antibiotics for you, but sometimes we need you to come in to get a urine test (which also costs you nothing extra).

A sprained ankle
Yes, it might be broken. But it will be fine to wait until tomorrow. Call me and we’ll get you an x-ray in the morning.

Asthma flareups
You might need to go to urgent care or the ER and have them check your oxygen level, do an exam, and maybe do an x-ray. But a lot of the time, we can make some medication adjustments and take care of things on the phone.

Coughs, colds, flu, and the like (including COVID)
In most cases, there’s not much we can do for you anyway except give you a hug and tell you to have some chicken soup (or miso soup if you want something plant-based). Call and let me talk you through it.

I can’t promise that my answer will always be “stay home and I can take care of you on the phone.” Sometimes you really do need to go to the ER or urgent care. But most of the time, we can handle you with a few commonsense and easy interventions.

And always remember — if you have questions, I’m here to help!

If you’re not yet a patient, and you’re interested, you can call or text us at (314) 464-9333 to schedule a quick chat to get to know Dr. Jay, or to get you set up as a new patient.