Whether or not you have a physician you see regularly, visiting an urgent care medical clinic may still sometimes be necessary. Often, those who visit clinics when ill or injured cannot get a doctor's appointment right away, but are not quite sick enough to need a hospital emergency room. Others may not have insurance and may have no other non-hospital option than to seek help in an urgent care facility. Whatever the reason, long waits are often a fact of life at clinics. But are they avoidable? The following steps will help you minimize your clinic wait time as much as possible.

• Step 1: Consider the location of the clinic. Sometimes it's easy to determine which areas in town will have clinics that are constantly busy, as opposed to those that will have a slower stream of patients. Avoid downtown areas or clinics attached to hospitals in favor of those in affluent suburbs. Take a look at the parking lot before you go in and see whether it is packed or not. If you are unhappy with your first experience, try asking around and see if you can determine which clinics are busier, on average, and which are less so.
• Step 2: If you are in extreme pain, bleeding heavily, have other medical conditions, or are experiencing symptoms you think may be dangerous (such as a potential heart attack), let the clinic staff know as your initial paperwork is filled out. This may bump you ahead of those with lesser symptoms.
• Step 3: Try to choose a slow day and time if you can. Avoid Mondays when possible; a Tuesday or Thursday may work best. Clinics may be able to advise you as to what their slow times are - mid-afternoon may be a good option at many places.
• Step 4: Look into whether any clinics in your area have instituted new procedures designed to minimize wait time. Some medical clinics make same-day appointments where patients can go back home to wait and be called shortly before they are able to be seen. Others may have websites where you can make appointments or find information about the best time to be seen quickly.

While you will probably never be able to eliminate all medical waiting time, making a few smart choices when you can will often help minimize the time you spend seeking treatment. Also, if you're sick, but have a regular doctor, you may want to check with them to make sure the clinic is your best bet. Many doctor's offices also do walk-in appointments for patients that are unexpectedly ill and need to be seen that day. The amount of time you'll have to wait to be seen will depend on your doctor's office.