My husband got food poisoning or some type of virus not too long ago. I called around a bunch of places, and they wouldn't take a "new patient" for a same day appointment. It didn't matter if they had the slots for the appointment! I was so aggravated at that. Since we are new to the area, we don't have a primary care doctor here yet. Even though it was during business hours that he wanted to see a doctor, we found we would have to go to either the ER, or an Urgent Care clinic. There are a few that are after hours only, but the Lewis Gale clinic is open all day. They saw us pretty quickly, and it was only $86. $50 for an office visit and $36 for a new patient charge. They wrote him a prescription and made sure he wasn't dying from dehydration or anything like that. $86 is way better than $500 for the ER, and a 20 minute wait is way better than the 3 and 4 hours I have spent at the ERS in the area.... unfortunately, more than once.
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