While most physicians are able to carry out routine diagnostic checks of patients and suggest suitable treatments, there are times when either the unavailability of a physician or the lack of medical infrastructural facilities requires a patient to seek instant care elsewhere. If the problem is not so serious as to call for immediate hospitalization and intensive or advanced medical supervision, an urgent care clinic can be an effective option. Similar to a hospital but not as comprehensive as to include all forms of treatment, especially during moments requiring critical care, an urgent care clinic is able to provide treatment, especially at times when a physician's clinic is closed for the day.

An urgent care center or clinic is also useful when the scope of treatment is outside a physician's normal procedure. For instance, a physician may not possess the required technical equipment to undertake X-ray procedures or blood tests while an urgent care clinic would be equipped to handle such tasks. Another advantage is that urgent care clinics almost always work around the clock, and it is a known fact that illnesses often come to the fore during the night hours. It follows then that the rise in demand for urgent care clinics has subsequently led to a spurt in the need for specialized personnel who can man the varied duties required in such clinics. Those who opt to work in urgent care centers have to be equipped with the attitude and skills to perform jobs efficiently and without loss in time. One such institution that provides fellowship and residency training is the Urgent Care Association of America.

The basic difference between urgent care centers and physicians? clinics is that the former do not consider their patients as "long term" records or visitors because almost all of them are walk-in patients whose need is for immediate care when their regular physicians are not accessible. The latter have to keep medical records of their patients because it is possible that a patient may seek the advice and treatment of a particular physician for the entire duration of his or her life. This is why the former have "episodic" patients while the latter have "established" patients. Urgent care is appropriate for injuries of a magnitude higher than generally seen in a primary care physician's office. For the public, urgent care acts as an "overflow outlet" when it's difficult or almost impossible to get an appointment at the local physician's clinic.

Urgent care is advisable when a person experiences chest pain; severe abdominal pain; difficulty in breathing; sudden dizziness; numbness in the face, arm or leg; severe headache; deep cuts; bleeding that will not stop; severe burns; and seizures at a time when a physician is not available. However, many urgent care centers also have Medicare facilities for minor injuries and illnesses such as sprains, broken bones, back problems, cuts without profuse bleeding, earaches, severe sore throat or cough, urinary tract infections, etc.