Why am I told to go to urgent care, when I have a Primary Care Physician?

Your average physician’s office cannot accommodate the needs of the 2000+ patients that they have per doctor in the normal day.  If the doctor is full or not in the office that day, they will often either recommend that you come in and see a non-physician practitioner or go to the local urgent care where you can walk-in anytime you need it.

At Direct Primary Care practices, like Direct Doctors, we do our best to be available to you when you need it.  While we can’t guarantee 24/7 in-person access, we can be sure to get back to you when you have an urgent need.  Our patients text, email and call us when they have an urgent concern and they hear back from their doctor directly within hours (and usually within minutes!).  When scheduling allows and the need requires an in-person assessment or treatment, their doctor directly schedules them to come in for what they need. 

​Amid COVID, this has been super helpful for our patients.  When a patient has a cold and doesn’t know what to do, we can discuss remotely what the best course of action is and help direct them to a COVID test fairly quickly to help guide next steps.  

We keep our panel of patients to 300-500 per physician, unlike the national average in a regular Fee-For-Service practice of 1000s per doctor.  This lets us be sure we can offer what we’re recommending to patients without long wait times on hold with a receptionist.  We call/text/email our patient back directly and we arrange their urgent visit when needed.  We can also handle many urgent requests remotely (i.e. that annoying UTI is back and you need the antibiotic again - you don’t have to have a visit!).  

To find out more about how direct our care is and how we practice primary care differently, check us out at www.directdoctors.org.
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