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Welcome back to Urgent Care Unscripted,
where we dive into real conversations

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about health, wellness,
and what really goes on behind

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urgent care.

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I'm Barbara Ron Alter, I'm
the director of operations

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and business development for AFC
Urgent Care in West Haven.

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And this is Mohammad Zamani.

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I'm the owner and franchisee
of the Urgent Care of West Haven.

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Today we'll be talking about
an interesting topic.

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It's about like when, 
people are already under way

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or sitting in the urgent care clinic,
but have not thought about in advance

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how to make the best use of your time

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at the clinic,
or how to maximize their visit at the.

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Absolutely. We see this every day.

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People come into the clinic,

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they're in a rush, and today
we're going to break it down.

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How to make things
a little bit faster for them.

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And one of the things we're going to cover
today is what to bring

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and how to prepare for your visit.

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We're also going
to talk about communication

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and how to communicate effectively
with your provider.

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And your clinic,
and tips on how to make the,

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the best of your visit make it smoother
so you get the most of your visit.

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And just let's start from the beginning
before you have even started.

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What can you do?

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You could make an appointment or you could
walk in both options that are available

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typically at all urgent care,
especially at our urgent care West Haven.

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But making an appointment in advance
actually save you some time.

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You spend less time,

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filling in the forms at the front desk,
and you get to see the provider sooner.

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And that helps you.

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That helps the clinic keep, the operation.

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Yes. It's absolutely.

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It's a big time saver.

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Definitely speeds up the process
when you come in and all your paperwork

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is already completed.

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Obviously, not everybody
has the time to do it ahead of time.

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So you can definitely come into the clinic
and do the paperwork there, but

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we'll definitely get you in and out way
faster if you get that done beforehand.

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Talking about paperwork,
what are the two main, paperwork?

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That sounds very easy.

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That's it's
your photo ID and your insurance card.

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Without a photo ID.

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It could be a physical form of ID,
or it could be a digital form of ID,

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but without the photo ID becomes
very difficult to see a patient.

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So we ask that you make sure that,
before we have stepped into the clinic,

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you know, you got a digital version
of the old and a physical version.

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And obviously having the insurance
card helps out.

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Yeah.

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And, the next thing that I just kind of

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want to point out regarding this visit
and making it faster is communication.

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So one big thing is making sure
you're effectively

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communicating what it is
that you need at the time of your visit.

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Keep in mind that it's an urgent care.

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Typically our time is limited,
unfortunately.

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So if you're coming in and you have,
you know, a couple of symptoms,

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you want to make sure you're addressing
your most important symptom.

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First, you want to
the one that you want to resolve today.

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So if you're coming in with various things
like a sore throat, but you also have,

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you know, your back has been hurting
for three months,

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you might want to address your sore throat
first and then you can either touch

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we can touch on your

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your back pain later,
or you can come in a couple of days later.

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Or we can schedule follow up to kind of
go more into depth on those symptoms.

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And just expanding on what Barbara
just said, about planning ahead.

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Like she said, you could come in with many
different symptoms or treatment needs.

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It could be one.

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It could be multiple.

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But planning ahead? Definitely. How?

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Because that keeps the process efficient.

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That helps the provider plan ahead
and save you time.

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That brings a good example of a patient
that came in

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actually this patient
and Barbara can expand more on that.

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She, wanted to be seen in 45 minutes
during her lunch break.

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The best thing she could have done
is she called us

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around 11, that, hey,
can you accommodate my need?

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I have to be seen.

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I have, such and such, concerns,
but I only have 45 minutes

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because she called ahead.

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We could plan with her.
She could plan with us.

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And she was in and out in 45 minutes.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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It's definitely not something we can
accommodate for every single patient.

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But if we know ahead of time,
we can let you know what to expect.

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If it was something that we couldn't

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accommodate at the time of her visit,
we would have told her.

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Yeah. So transparency.

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Like she said, it goes both ways.

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If you communicate to us, then it becomes
the, clear communication from both ends.

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We know what your expectations are
and you know what you can do or not.

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For the time you can afford
to spend at the urgent care.

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And then we can set up a realistic
expectation of when you should come,

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how long you can expect to receive
and when you can actually get out.

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to make things a little bit faster
for the patients too.

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We make sure we send
all of our prescriptions electronically.

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I know that some providers might still do
paper or might call in the prescriptions.

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One thing that we like to do

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is send over the prescriptions
directly to the pharmacy, and making sure

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that is also done effectively
and as fast as we possibly can.

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I think, Muhammad,

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do you want to go a little bit
about some final tips and what else? Yes.

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So everybody knows
it's an urgent care. Right.

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So you come in here for a few, Covid
testing or, you have a fever

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or you want to do a physical,
like a physical

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or annual physical, all of those things,
we can accommodate that.

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But then there is a difference

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between us and and, emergency room. Right.

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So if you have a chest pain,
if you have difficulty breathing

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or if you have some kind of a sign
that's symptomatic of a stroke,

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this would not be the place
you would be best served

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if you immediately contact, 
an emergency room

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or a hospital to get the boxes
so you can have some of those.

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Absolutely. And feel free to call us.

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We can definitely give you some advice.

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We can't obviously give you medical advice
over the phone, but if you tell us

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what your symptoms are, we can best advise
you on whether to come in and see us,

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or if we think that you would be better
served at an emergency room.

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We do understand emergency rooms
wait time can be a little bit longer,

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but when it comes to an urgent care,
there could be some circumstances

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where we are limited
to what we can do within our walls.

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So definitely costs ahead.

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And let us know what your situation is.

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If you are unsure about where to go.

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To wrap up,
I think we want to just talk about,

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you know, book online
big, big, big help for you.

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Bring your ID and your insurance card,
make sure you're focused and direct

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with your provider.

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Tell us upfront
if you're on a time crunch.

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Ask if we can,
if there's anything we can do

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and obviously be open and clear
with your provider.

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So communication is key.

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And with that note on communication,
we'll catch you next time.

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Until then, subscribe to urgent Care.

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Crystal,
this is Mohamed, and would you like,

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see you next time.

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See you next time.

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Thanks so much for tuning in.

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And we are at 354
Sawmill Road in West Haven.

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And come see us anytime you need us.