’Tis the season for winter illnesses. The high traffic in our Emergency Centers and Urgent Cares are causing extended wait times, in some cases over eight hours, and overload for team members. Using Virtual Urgent Care for non-emergent illnesses can help take some of the burden off our team members in ECs and UCs and prevent patients from spending needless hours in waiting rooms.
“We’re experiencing a very large surge of patients in our ECs and UCs right now and we need to do everything we can to help support our teams,” said Jodi Harris, assistant vice president, Urgent Care. “A good start is encouraging people to use Virtual Urgent Care whenever possible. Sending patients that route first can alleviate the burden for our team members and provide a better experience for our patients.”
Benefits of Virtual Urgent Care:
- Treatment from the convenience of your own home. In some cases, the parent/legal guardian does not have to be in the same location as the child.
- Open scheduling: your child does not need to be a patient at Texas Children’s to schedule a visit.
- Same day appointments are available.
- Faster alternative to in-person visits for common illnesses, such as sore throat, rash or cough.
- Available to any child while in the state of Texas.
A Virtual Urgent Care visit may be combined with an urgent care visit. While it may be necessary to see a provider in person following an initial consultation, it may only be to take a test. The VC provider can then call in any prescriptions needed. By combining care, your visits can be much more efficient. Click here for more information.
Hours and scheduling:
- Open seven days a week from 9 a.m. – 11 p.m.
- To make an appointment online, click here and schedule with or without using MyChart.
- To make an appointment by phone, call 832-822-2222.
- Click here to learn more about preparing for your Virtual Urgent Care visit.
Emergency Centers and Urgent Cares are often mistaken as interchangeable in terms of where to go for patient care. When children are sick, every minute counts, so don’t waste time waiting at the wrong place. Click here to review a symptoms chart, so you know the best place to take your child.