You will someday find yourself in a situation where you are in need of a doctor during off hours or on vacation but it isn’t quite an emergency. What do you do? Where do you go? Urgent care centers have popped up around the United States and provide family health services.

There are some medical situations in which you need to see a doctor on a day when your doctor’s office is closed. Some conditions would be:

• Urgent care centers can diagnose and treat sprains and minor bone breaks can be diagnosed and treated at an urgent care center. Most can determine the extent of the injury with x-ray machines. If, however, you have a break that protrudes from the skin, go straight to an emergency room.

• Minor cuts and wounds: Let’s say that you are cooking and cut your finger really deep. It isn’t bad enough to go to an emergency room but needs stitches. Urgent care centers have the physicians and staff that can treat the injury. They can prescribe antibiotics if needed to prevent infection.

• Pneumonia and strep throat: Both of these shouldn’t be put on hold until your doctor’s office opens on Monday morning. Strep throat can spread quickly. Urgent care centers have the tests needed to determine if you have this infection.

• Bug bites that create infection: Let’s say you are out on a hike with your family and you are bitten. If it’s a tick bite or the bite area becomes swollen, pus-filled, or you get a fever, you will need to see a doctor. Urgent care centers can treat these kinds of bites and infections with prescription medicine.

If you go to an urgent care and your injuries or illness are beyond the scope of what they can provide, you will be referred to a nearby emergency room. But, for minor injuries and illnesses, an urgent care center is ideal.

Visit IPALC.org to search for urgent care centers in the Lee County area.