There is a lot of misconception about what exactly constitutes the need for Urgent Care. Many think a patient must be at death’s door or have suffered some sort of catastrophic event. Not true at all! Urgent Care is a sort of mashup between your primary care physician and the Emergency Room. The ideal Urgent Care facility offers top-notch emergency care, convenience and a calming environment.


It is an alternative to traditional emergency care that is rapidly gaining popularity across the country. Seeing an Urgent care doctor is a great solution for anyone needing medical attention quickly, for health issues both large and small.You’ve had a pesky cold for a week, but suddenly on Saturday morning your throat feels like you’re swallowing swords. You realize you need medical attention, but your doctor’s office is closed and you REALLY don’t want to go to the ER for a sore throat. Depending on where you live – it’s likely that that little trip to the ER for emergency care would eat up a good 4-6 hours of your day (In NYC, that’s a conservative estimate!).

Plus, you have tickets to see “Book of Mormon” tonight, setting you back $200. In addition to the pain – this is turning out to be a very expensive sore throat.

Here’s where urgent care comes to the rescue. Most have extended hours during the week and are open on the weekends. A board-certified doctor trained in Emergency Medicine will diagnose, prescribe and treat any number of common ailments – infections, viruses, aches and pains – as well as more serious conditions resulting from accident or injury. X-rays, wound care, stitches and casting are usually performed onsite. Diagnostic testing is usually offered, including blood tests and urinalysis.

Please remember – you don’t have to suffer through the weekend (or miss the play!) because you suspect your issue is not “urgent” enough for Urgent Care.

Life is short – get better quickly, get out there and enjoy it!

It used to be that unless your blood sugar was above the normal cut off for diabetes, you didn’t have to worry. New research is suggesting that even high normal blood sugar on your annual physical exam can cause serious problems.

Various studies in the past have shown that high sugar levels for prolonged periods of time have a clear link with brain shrinkage and dementia even in people with high normal blood levels of sugar.

These new results stress the importance of regular blood sugar testing, especially to those who have had high normal or borderline blood sugars in the past. The newest research shows evidence that those individuals who maintained high blood sugar levels displayed more brain atrophy and noticeable shrinkage in the hippocampus and the amygdala. These areas of the brain are involved in cognitive functioning and memory.

These new findings underline the importance of monitoring blood level content via a simple walk in blood test and stabilizing blood sugar levels, even for those who may not have previously thought to be in danger. To get your blood sugar tested or whenever you need urgent care in Manhattan, visit Medhattan Immediate Medical Care in the Financial District.

As winter begins to descend upon the city, many New Yorkers are looking to travel to exotic and sunny lands to escape the frigid malaise. Most travelers are aware that they need to consult their doctors about travel vaccines and immunizations for travel when going abroad. Medhattan provides a myriad of travel medicine kits for ensuring protection against any exotic pathogens during international travel.


Medhattan often caters to travelers heading to Malaysia, Tanzania, or Cambodia, offering prophylaxis against common infections such as yellow fever, malaria, meningitis, rabies, typhoid, and hepatitis. But travelers to Europe often overlook vaccines and medicine, which can lead to serious health risks. Visitors to countries like Spain, Italy, and France are vulnerable to diseases like the measles.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, measles hit a 15 year high last year, mostly due to foreign travelers harboring back to the States. Measles is a serious infection that can cause pneumonia and encephalitis, which can be fatal. Measles was eradicated in the United States 12 years ago, and thus is often overlooked and forgotten. The CDC now recognizes that US travelers can bring measles back from Europe and encourages visiting an NYC travel medicine clinic before departure.

“We are fortunate to have international travel vaccinations to prevent against most of the illnesses that once caused plauges and widespread illness,” says Medhattan founder Dr. Leslie Miller, “To not take advantage of that potential for prevention is playing Russian roulette with your health.”

Medhattan offers a full range of travel medicine services and is one of the few designated yellow fever prevention sites in NYC.

In addition to prohylaxis against common travel related illnesses, Medhattan offers ‘just in case’ medications for ailments such as insomnia, urinary infection, travelers diarrhea, and more! So when traveling aboard, visit Medhattan, one of the premier travel medicine clinics in Manhattan before your next trip to be prepared for anything.

Avoid These Amateur Cooking Mistakes & You’ll Avoid An Urgent Care Visit

Tis the season of generosity and good cheer, but unfortunately, tis also the season for food poisoning. In November and December NY urgent care centers and ERs are flooded with people suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. That’s why this year our doctors took the time to interview some chef friends about proper storage, prep, and serving of large quantities of food.

“Most common food-borne illnesses are caused by Norovirus, salmonella and campylobacter,” says Leslie Miller MD, founder of Medhattan, an urgent care center in NY in lower Manhattan staffed by 15 Emergency Medicine doctors. “My food poisoning motto is, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Here are some tips to keep you and your loved ones out of the New York urgent care this holiday season.

• Store raw meat and poultry well-wrapped in the refrigerator to avoid cross contamination. This means no drippy packages on the shelf. If raw meats leak onto your surfaces, clean it up with a solution of diluted bleach.




• It’s not enough to wash your cutting board in between prepping turkey and chopping salad veggies. Put utensils exposed to raw meat through a hot cycle in your dishwasher, or simply use a different cutting board and knife.




• Paper towels are your friend. One square inch of cotton dishcloth can contain 10 million bacteria!




• Be sure to check expiration dates and cook meat or poultry not more than two days after purchasing it. Leftovers should be consumed within three days.




• If the meat is frozen, the safest way to defrost it is in the refrigerator, never on the counter. Allow 24 hours of in-fridge defrosting time for every four to five pounds of weight. Never cook directly from frozen meat.




• Proper cooking destroys bacteria. If you don’t own a meat thermometer, its time to get one.




• When serving buffet style, don’t leave food out for more than two hours because bacteria can double every 20 minutes.




• Be sure that reheated food is steaming hot. Reheat food only once, since lukewarm food creates an ideal environment for fast growing bacteria.




• Don’t overfill your refrigerator. Air must circulate to keep foods fresh.

If you incorporate and keep these tips in mind when cooking your holiday meals, you’ll 
avoid the potential to have a serious gastrointestinal illness, said Dr. Miller

Medhattan Immediate Medical care was recently mentioned on page 1 of the NY Times in an article discussing how residents of lower Manhattan are meeting their health care needs since St Vincent’s closed 2 years ago. If you didn’t see it, we hope you check it out. We are so proud to be part of a revolution in patient centered high quality affordable medical care.

With Urgent Care Centers opening up all over the place, we thought we would offer some criteria you might want to consider when trying to choose.

Quality immediate medical care: Beyond the obvious questions such as, “How easy it is to get there?” and “Do they take my insurance?” you might want to consider who staffs your local Urgent Care. Some walk in medical clinics are staffed by Physicians assistants, Nurse practitioners or medical assistants. At the premier\ Urgent Cares you will only be seen by a Board Certified doctor, usually an ER doctor. This is important. Sometimes serious problems lurk behind a simple looking issue. A highly trained physician can discern whether a cough is bronchitis or something more ominous.

Affordable walk in medical care: Some walk in health clinics want to charge ER prices. To do so they have to turn away non-emergency cases such as strep throat, rashes, flu etc. The main reason they do this is so they can bill at Emergency Room rates, including ER co-pay rates, which are radically higher than urgent care rates. This can really add up. ER co-pays can be $100 dollars higher than urgent care co- pays and the average ER bill runs in the thousands. Moreover, if an Urgent Care Center bills your insurance at ER rates and is not actually an ER, your insurance can deny it, leaving you with a whopping bill. Many of the neighbors we have met have had this terrible experience. Urgent Care Centers are not ERs and they shouldn’t be charging ER rates. A reputable walk in medical center posts its rates on line and in the office so, like at the nail salon, you know exactly what you are getting into.

Patient centric amenities to make your life easier: Also look for an urgent care center that offers care of both children and adults, does immunizations for travel, and offers xray and labs on site. The goal of urgent care is to make your life easier so the goal is one stop shopping. How convenient would it be to take care of that little health problem you have been having while your son gets his ear infection checked out? Additional amenities like complimentary concierge specialist referrals, DVD players for the kids, free healthy snacks and the ability to get your medical record on a flash drive are additional features some urgent care centers may offer to make your life easier.

At Medhattan a team of 15 ER doctors set out to reinvent how New Yorkers get their medical care and we are so proud that our neighbors are discovering us to be an indispensable asset.

Did you know that there are currently about 9,000 walk in urgent care centers across the US? The concept of walk in urgent care began about 30 years ago, but in New York City there are only a handful. Because this is a new concept, many New Yorkers have misconceptions about what urgent care centers do.

Walk In Urgent Care Misconception #1:

If it’s too serious for my doctor to handle, I should probably go to the ER.

Many people feel that BIG issues require a big medical center, and we agree…if what you mean by a BIG issue is something life threatening like a stroke, a heart attack, being in labor or something that will require immediate surgery. But emergency walk in centers treat non life threatening emergencies every day…things like fractures, dehydration, kidney stones, gallbladder attacks, dislocations, lacerations and burns.

If you choose an emergency walk in medical center that is staffed exclusively by Board Certified ER doctors, you will be seeing the same doctors that you would see in the ER, so there’s no reason to feel that the quality of care is different or lesser than in the ER. In fact, at an urgent care walk in medical center, the doctor may have more time to listen, to gather information…and more time to spend explaining to you what’s going on. So in many ways the urgent care experience may be superior to that in the ER.

Walk In Urgent Care Misconception #2

Emergency Walk In Centers are staffed by medical professionals with sketchy credentials.

We get it. You are picturing some shady urgent care situation in a strip mall with a flickering neon sign staffed by people whose credentials are marginal and whose communication skills are worse.

Well we are right behind you on this one. A walk in urgent care is only as good as the people who staff it. Some urgent care centers aren’t even staffed by doctors. Many walk in urgent cares seek to maximize their profits by staffing with Trainees, Physician’s Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, Medical Assistants and other so called “Physician Extenders”. But some urgent care centers are rigorous about their staffing, hiring only elite physicians trained at the best institutions. The quality of doctor you see will depend largely on the urgent care YOU choose.

Don’t settle for a place where you will be cared for by a non-physician unless you have the very simplest of medical problems.

Walk In Urgent Care Misconception #3

Faster, Better, Nicer…must be more expensive.

You’ve heard stories about concierge medicine…people paying high rates to get to see the best doctors the same day, right? So perhaps you assume that a service that offers same day access to the best ER doctors in the area will charge an arm and a leg.

The truth is, if your walk in urgent care center is charging exorbitant rates for what they do, if they are charging ER rates and co-pays even though they are not an ER, if they accept cash only and no insurance…they are probably ripping you off.

Truly great doctors don’t want to overcharge, they want to spend quality time with patients. Find an urgent care center with principled pricing, which accepts insurance and you will find it to be quite affordable.

Urgent care in Manhattan ranges from a McMedicine experience at the corner chain pharmacy all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum: a boutique facility staffed by elite doctors with on-site services that provide a true ER alternative.

Here are 4 factors to consider in deciding which Urgent Care in NYC is best for you:

Quality
Convenience
Cost
Patient Experience

Quality:

1) Insist on being cared for by an actual Doctor.

At many urgent care centers you will be seen by a Nurse Practitioner, Physician’s Assistant, Medical Assistant or trainee. While this can in some cases result in a more affordable urgent care experience, the fact is that urgent care centers staffed by real doctors are often the same price as those who take shortcuts with your care.

2) Insist on Emergency Medical Care provided by Emergency Doctors.

You never want to sacrifice quality for convenience. When something you thought was minor turns out to be serious you will want the expertise of someone trained to treat acute illness and injury. Look for an Manhattan urgent care center that is staffed by Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physicians, not Internists or Primary Care doctors.

3) You deserve a doctor with excellent credentials.

At the end of the day, you want a really smart Doctor. That’s why quality urgent care centers will prominently post the bios of their doctors. Notice where your emergency doctor did their training and what awards they have achieved. Note whether they also work at prestigious academic institutions. If so, they are more likely to have cutting edge skills and up to date knowledge than doctors who work exclusively in urgent care centers.

Convenience:

There may be an urgent care center right down the street, but if it’s not open at 8pm when you need emergency medical care, or on Thanksgiving day when the unexpected happens, it’s not going to be a help to you. Most urgent care centers are open 7 days a week but not all are open 365 days a year.

You will likely want to:

1) Choose a Manhattan urgent care that is open holidays, weekends and extended evening hours.

2) Also choose one that is easily accessible by subway or taxi.

Whether you need emergency medical care in TriBeCa or a prescription refill on the UWS, convenience is of the essence and you want to choose an urgent care center that’s open when you need it most.

Cost:

Part of what’s great about urgent care centers is that, unlike the ER, rates should be transparent and no one should be getting an unexpected mystery bill. Look for Manhattan urgent care centers which:

1) Post their self pay rates clearly in the office and online.

2) Accept your insurance.

3) Charge urgent care co pays and rates, not ER co pays and rates.*

*ER co pays are typically $100 more than urgent care rates, plus ER rates can come to thousands of dollars extra on your bill and are more likely to be denied by your insurance.

Patient experience:

Manhattan urgent care centers offer a wonderful ER alternative in a city where the ER experience is often chaotic, dirty, dehumanizing and slow. By removing the care from the inefficiency of the hospital system some urgent care centers have had opportunity to reinvent the way patient care is delivered offering

1) chic surroundings

2) cutting edge technology

3) customer service amenities that evoke the hotel industry

Read reviews. Stop in on the way to work. Shop around before an emergency is upon you.


Medhattan is the premier urgent care in lower Manhattan when you need emergency medical care in TriBeCa, BPC, (Fidi), Seaport or the West Village. Our beautiful Manhattan urgent care center is staffed exclusively by caring Board Certified Emergency Medicine Doctors to provide the best walk in emergency care in NYC for you and your children.

Walk in urgent care is a relatively new concept in Manhattan, so it’s understandable if you are confused about where to go. Here are some situations in which it would be preferable to go to an immediate care facility:

I NEED TO SEE A DOCTOR NOW

When you are sick or injured the “next available appointment” may not be soon enough. Doctors in Manhattan are not the best about fitting in a walk in appointment, but at an urgent care center you can always receive a doctors immediate care, same day, with no appointment.

AFTER HOURS CARE

Unlike primary care offices, urgent care centers are open for extended hours including weekends and evenings. Some Manhattan urgent care centers are open 365 days/year including holidays. If you are looking for adult or pediatric after hours care for a non-life- threatening problem, an emergency walk in center is your go to option.

EMERGENCY CARE

The staff at urgent care centers is able to treat illnesses and injuries too serious to be handled in a Primary Care or Pediatric office, such as lacerations, fractures, dislocations, asthma treatments, oxygen and IV fluids. But emergency walk in centers are not all created equal and no one should substitute convenience for quality. You likely will want to be seen by an emergency care Physician, not a Nurse Practitioner or a Physician’s Assistant. The sign of a superior walk in clinic is that is it staffed exclusively by Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physicians.

DIAGNOSTICS ALL UNDER ONE ROOF

A Primary Care Doctor will usually have to make a referral for you to get X Ray, sonogram, EKG or labs elsewhere. A quality emergency walk in center in NYC will offer all that “under one roof”. That means everything is simplified for you. You don’t need to make appointments or travel to get diagnostic tests done, and you will have your results in minutes rather than waiting for follow up to be sent to your doctor the next day.

NO DELAY IN STARTING MEDICATIONS

Immediate care facilities administer medications on site, such as pain medications and antibiotics, a feature primary care physicians do not offer.

The care you receive at an immediate medical care center is not a substitute for having a primary care doctor. It’s good medicine to have your own primary care doctor who can provide ongoing treatment, and we discourage patients from using walk in physicians as a substitute for ongoing primary care. At Medhattan, we will gladly make a referral for you if necessary.

At your request we will ensure that your primary care doctor is aware of every aspect of your visit, and we will copy your entire chart and history on a flash drive for you to take with you, including any x-rays or lab results.

About Medhattan
Medhattan Immediate Medical Care is open 365 days/year including holidays and we are open after hours when your doctor is not available. We are the premier urgent care in Manhattan, staffed exclusively by 15 Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physicians providing urgent care for kids and adults.