Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) stand as crucial pillars in healthcare, offering prompt services for acute ailments and chronic conditions without the hassle of prior appointments. However, assessing patients’ awareness regarding these vital facilities is paramount. In this study, we delve into the realm of patient awareness concerning UCCs within the Al-Ahsa region, shedding light on their utilization patterns and informing decision-makers about enhancing urgent care services.
Methodology:
The researchers are doing a systematic retelling of an investigation in the Al-Ahsa area during the period from August 2023 to December 2023. The randomly selected participants using the validated questionnaire were quasi-experimental in preferred distribution and health centres in the local area. Their group was 469-member-numbered. Statistics processing uses SPSS version 28 with rich capabilities to do both descriptive and functional statistic analysis.
Results:
Concerning the 469 participants, those aged between eighteen and thirty-eight made the highest percentage; males accounted for about 54.8% of this category. Chronic disease incidence was not high in that population, with hypertension at 14.3% and diabetes mellitus at 11.9% as common. What is insulting is that a large proportion of them (84.9%) manifested no cognizance of UCCs at all. Even though the majority of the respondents were aware of the utilization of the USSD code, A greater proportion (53.5%) had contacted Urgent Care Clinics services. In the last three months, including for services such as cough, headache, and stomach pain, among others, Most (38.6%) admitted looking at emergency units either as a UCC trial or because they were not articulate enough. To tell their sufferings. In particular, among genders, an importantly different rate of knowledge was registered (p = 0.031). Women presented 20.1% of knowledge, in contrast to 12.6% of the male population.
Conclusion:
The information presented in the study should be a red flag for everyone, knowing there is a complete lack of awareness about UCCs. In this respect, we have to address the question of increasing public awareness by using different kinds of media channels. They help to improve the quality of healthcare and they decrease ED congestion due to non-urgent cases Patients are now increasingly contributing to the strategic healthcare landscape and hence the role of patients in facilitating informed, appropriate and timely healthcare delivery is ever more crucial.
