Sunday night James Sharp and his wife spent six hours at a hospital.
"It's horrible in that time you want to get in and out but you can't because there's so many patients in the hospital being seen" Sharp said.
Instead of spending another day in waiting room his family went to Lansing 24 hour urgent care.
"It's a lot faster than the hospital it's usually it just gets really hectic at the hospital a lot of time if you want to get in and out," says Sharp on why he chooses Fast Care.
Sharp isn't alone. More and more families are skipping hospital visits for faster urgent care and because of that more clinics are opening up.
"The advantage is really for our patients," said Patricia Crowe, medical director for Sparrow Urgent Care. "The advantage is for having access and doing it at a convenient time that really works for their schedule and not getting caught behind waits."
Sparrow Hospital opened their third Fast Care Clinic and this time it's in a Meijer Store.
"Patients can reserved a spot in line so they don't have to wait. More or less they do their weighting either at home or at work as opposed to waiting in the waiting room," Crowe said.
While these are helpful, doctors say they can't substitute a family doctor.
"They are not for refilling your medications, they are not for taking care of your diabetes, they're not for taking care of your high blood pressure," said family physician, Dr. Reddog Sina.
He tells me a doctor that knows your family history can be more effective.
"You're primary doctor knows what medication you're on. They know what your history is" Dr. Sina said. "They have a much better history of your life and they can treat you more effectively and more efficiently."
He admits these clinics are keeping more people with mild illnesses out of the emergency room, "for a minor illness going to the urgent care is the only way to go," said Dr. Sina.
"It's cheaper, it's faster, and you're not getting in the way of somebody who needs to be seen worse than you" Dr. Sina said.
