Poverty in the United States has been closely linked to poor access to healthcare, largely because impoverished populations cannot afford health insurance. Kansas, like many states, struggles to meet the needs of these communities. Urgent care centers can help reduce the amount of money people spend on emergency, after-hours services by helping them avoid expensive ER visits.

Poverty in Kansas

Nearly 18 percent of people in Kansas live below the poverty line. 5.6 percent have incomes below 50 percent of the poverty level. The situation looks even worse when one focuses on Wichita, the state's largest city. 20.7 percent of Wichita's residents live in poverty. 6.2 percent have incomes below 50 percent of the poverty level.

When living at that level of poverty, families often cannot afford to visit doctors for early intervention. That means they end up using emergency rooms after they have suffered unnecessarily. Urgent care centers offer a better alternative to emergency rooms.

Urgent Care in Kansas

Kansas has several healthcare companies that operate urgent care centers throughout the state. These centers provide many of the same services that patients can get at an emergency room, including medications, health evaluations, and fast treatment. Urgent care centers do not, however, have resources for true emergencies, such as heart attacks, serious wounds, and unknown health events.

Urgent care centers are open after normal business hours, giving patients a cheaper option to see a doctor after hours. Some urgent care centers in Kansas include: Prompt Care in Lawrence; Southeast Kansas Urgent Care (several locations); Sunflower Prompt Care in Topeka; Physician Now Urgent Care; and Immediate Medicare Care Clinic in Wichita.

Specific urgent care and walk-in clinic services available in may include STD testing flu shots, school physicals and many other valuable services