This post has been sponsored by Medical City Children’s Urgent Care in order to bring you one mom’s (real-life) experience with their care centers, and why Medical City Urgent Care should be your “go-to” if you find yourself in the same situation.
First let me start by saying I am a full time mom, with a full time job and children who participate in sports and extra-curricular activities nearly every day a week, which also feels full time. If you are like me you know, time is often not on our side. I spend my days rushing from one place to another just in order to meet all of my (er, our) commitments. The first step is admitting it, so here goes. . . My name is Melissa and I’m an over-scheduler. Most days I can barely get dinner cooked and homework done…good thing my family is not above eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Yesterday in the midst of the chaos I call life, my 5 year old, Maren came crying to me, complaining of a terrible ear ache. My first thought was, “not now, please don’t do this to me!” All I could think of was the homework that still needs to get completed, the soccer practice we needed to attend and the PTA Board Meeting (yep, add that to my resume too) I still had to get to. Mom fail, I know but seriously, why do my kiddos always get sick when I can’t get in to their pediatrician? The doctor’s answering service recommended that I take my daughter to a pediatric urgent care center.
What??? No!!! We don’t have 3 hours to sit around and wait to be seen by a doctor.
I called the recommended facility, Medical City Children’s Hospital Urgent Care to see what kind of shenanigans I’d be dealing with. Pleasantly surprised, the lady who answered the phone told me I could register online and save my spot to avoid a long wait.
“So I won’t have to wait hours and hours and hours?” I clarified with the receptionist. Nope, she assured me the office was just now opening (4:30 pm) and staff would be available to care for Maren until 11 pm that night. In fact, she took it a step farther telling me that most visits are only 30-45 minutes from check in to check out.
Now you are talking, but could this be real? The ultimate experiment!
Registration online was literally the easiest process ever and I was able to print out additional paperwork to take with me to Maren’s visit.
When I walked in the door, I felt immediately at home. The receptionist was a doctor’s office anomaly – bright, cheery and enjoying her job. I had a good feeling. The décor was fantastic, child-centered and really appealed to Maren. We waited maybe a matter of seconds before Maren’s name was called to come back.
Typically weighing my child is a knockdown, drag out battle. I get it, I mean being weighed makes me want to cry too, but seriously. The nurse asked Maren to step up on scale that faced a very cute, kid friendly mirror. “Let’s see how big you are, Miss Maren”, the nurse says and all I can think about is how I am going to explain her adverse reaction to the scale. The next thing I know we are being escorted to a room. Maren had complied.
Score one for Medical City Children’s Hospital Urgent Care.
Much of the rest of the visit went the same. Every person we encountered was friendly, happy and genuinely seemed to enjoy taking care of my babe. We were offered drinks during our brief wait for the doctor. I told the nurse I didn’t have any cash with me and she giggled. You see, Medical City Children’s Hospital Urgent Care provides drinks to patients as a courtesy. She did not want my $0.75. Nice!
Maren was examined by Dr. Clark, who introduced himself as the Chief Medical Officer for the urgent care. Now we were really feeling VIP! He could not have been nicer. After he examined Maren, he asked us both if we had any questions which really made my daughter feel important. Dr. Clark gave us a diagnosis of Otitis Media, which he explained was “a fancy way of saying inner ear infection”. Thanks for keeping it real, Dr. Clark!
As we were given our paperwork (and a popsicle for Maren courtesy of the urgent care), I looked at my watch and low and behold the receptionist who originally quoted me office visit times was right. The time we spent at Medical City Children’s Hospital Urgent Care? 29 minutes!! Woo Hoooo! When has that ever happened at a doctor’s office? And the icing on the cake, the nurse told me Maren’s prescription had already been electronically sent over to the pharmacy of my choice.
Wait, what? Holy cow, my son may just make soccer practice after all.
Long story short, Medical City Children’s Hospital Urgent Care is a total godsend. Life is busy and this pediatric urgent care really valued my time and makes seeing the doctor convenient. Not that I want my children to be sick or hurt, but if it has to happen I’m keeping my fingers crossed it is at night or on the weekend. If you find yourself in the same position, check out Medical City Children’s Hospital Urgent Care. You won’t regret it!
Medical City Children’s Hospital Urgent Care has six locations in north Texas. The newest location, at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest in Dallas, features fun murals of Dallas landmarks (seen above!).
The locations are open on evenings and weekends, when pediatrician’s offices are closed. To learn more, go to http://medicalcityurgentcare.com.
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Melissa Brewster, MBA is a 35 year old full-time working mom of two very active young children, Maren, age 5 and Noah, age 7. Melissa is also the Director of Quality and Risk Management for QRx Medical Management.
