When you need to go to the doctor’s office, there are a variety of medical practice types to choose from. Solo and group practices offer varying service benefits that can influence the type of care they provide patients. Hospital-based and locum tenens (temporary employment) structure care and customer service in different ways to provide the best possible care for your needs.
What is the Difference Between Solo and Group Practice?
Private practices involve a single physician in business by themselves, though some are part of solo practice associations. Doctors can set up shop to provide individualized care for patients needing their specialty. Two or more physicians run separate practices in the same facility. Group practices are often doctor’s office clusters with different yet related practices.
What is a Locum Tenens Physician?
Locum tenens physicians rotate assignments based on need and opportunity. Latin for “to hold the place of,” locum tenens refers to doctors that accept temporary positions, often relocating to areas that are in the greatest need of physicians. They work at hospitals, urgent care facilities, doctors’ offices, and other healthcare facilities.
What are Other Types of Medical Practices?
Hospitals and urgent care centers often hire full time staff physicians directly from solo or group practices to fulfill their healthcare needs. Health maintenance organizations, more commonly known as HMOs, have a wide range of physicians and care practices that serve beneficiaries of specific HMO policies.
Contact Duke City Urgent Care Today
Duke City Urgent Care is proud to offer high quality care to patients of all ages. If you or someone you know needs fast medical evaluation by extensively trained professionals, contact our doctor’s office in Albuquerque or Los Lunas today!
If you have suffered minor injuries from a fall, on a hiking trip, or in the gym, and you are certain you do not need emergency care at a hospital, urgent care centers can be used as quicker and often cheaper alternatives to waiting for an appointment at your doctor’s office in Albuquerque..
Urgent care centers like Duke City Urgent Care feature a team of healthcare professionals with fully qualified, experienced physicians on call.
What Symptoms Do Urgent Care Center Doctors Treat
Doctors at urgent care centers are fully qualified to treat a wide range of symptoms and health conditions. While you may not have the history and emotional attachment you would have at your regular doctor’s office in Albuquerque that you visit for standard checkups, the physicians at Duke City Urgent Care are fully licensed, highly experienced medical professionals that can provide top-quality, compassionate care when you need it most.
Depending on the severity of your injury or illness, you will either see a staff physician or other experienced healthcare professional that will treat symptoms such as:
Allergies and asthma symptoms
Broken bones
Bug bites
Eye and ear infections
Flu and flu-like coughs and colds
Flu shots
Infected wounds
Joint sprains and strains
Lab tests and X-rays
Minor cuts and scratches
Pre-filled drug prescriptions
Sore throats and sinus conditions
Sports physicals and minor injuries
TB tests
Urinary tract infections
If you are suffering from more serious conditions such as chest or abdominal pain, compound bone breaks, head injuries, or exhibiting signs of a stroke, you should go to the nearest hospital emergency immediately.
Contact Duke City Urgent Care Today
Duke City Urgent Care is proud to offer high quality care to patients of all ages. If you or someone you know needs fast medical evaluation by extensively trained professionals, contact ourdoctors’ offices in Albuquerque or Los Lunas today!
Workplace injuries can be devastating. But if you get injured while at work, it’s important to know what to do. You’re not helpless if you got hurt on the job – instead, there are several steps that you should always take to ensure that you get the care you need to recover quickly. Here are three things to do when you get injured at work, courtesy of our urgent care center in Albuquerque.
Have You Gotten First Aid?
As soon as you get hurt, you should use your workplace’s onsite first aid to address your injuries. Fast treatment can play a pivotal role in preventing your condition from worsening, so make sure you get the help you need as quickly as possible. If necessary, grab the attention of any nearby coworkers if you’re unable to get first aid on your own.
Did You Notify Your Manager?
Once you’ve gotten first aid, you should make sure that your manager knows about your injury. Follow your workplace policies when you notify your supervisor. You may need to fill out a report detailing everything that happened during and leading up to your incident. In any case, you should make sure that your manager knows everything there is to know about your injury – you might lose your workers’ compensation benefits if you don’t inform your employer of your situation.
Will You Get Urgent Care Treatment?
The best way to address your injuries is to get treated by a trusted provider of occupational medicine. Depending on your workplace policies and workers’ compensation program, your workplace might provide complementary treatment with your chosen urgent care provider. Seeing a medical expert is a surefire way to put your injury behind you and get back to work.
Visit Our Urgent Care Center Today
At Duke City Urgent Care, we proudly provide occupational medicine that helps you return to work. If you or someone you know needs fast medical evaluation by extensively trained professionals, contact our doctor’s office in Albuquerque or Los Lunas!
If you’ve ever suffered an injury at work, then you’ll know the feeling of hopelessness that comes from losing time away from your occupation. That’s why occupational medicine is so critical. While your body can naturally recover from many injuries and accidents, occupational medicine is specially designed to help you quickly bounce back and get back to work after a debilitating incident. Read on to learn more about the basics of occupational medicine and how it can play an essential role in helping you get back to work.
What is occupational medicine?
Like its name would suggest, occupational medicine is a medical practice that focuses specifically on addressing injuries or illnesses that commonly arise in the workplace. Unlike general medical methods, occupational medicine incorporates elements such as physical therapy, vaccinations, and physicals to comply with state regulations about workplace healthcare.
How does occupational medicine work?
Occupational medicine is typically associated with an employer’s workers’ compensation program. If you’re injured on the job, your employer should promptly direct you to your workplace’s designated occupational medical provider. You will then receive treatment specifically tailored to the unique risks present in your industry and your work practices. You might also encounter occupational medicine in your initial hiring process, as medical providers can perform state-required health screening processes.
Does occupational medicine make a difference?
Whether you’re an employer or an employee, using an occupational medicine provider can make a massive impact on your work processes and health. For workers, occupational medicine can alleviate injuries that might have taken months to heal otherwise. Meanwhile, occupational medical providers make employers’ jobs easier by handling state-required processes for employment screening.
Get Occupational Medicine & More Today
If you’re in the Albuquerque area, you won’t have to look far for quality care. Duke City Urgent Care is proud to offer high-quality occupational medicine. If you or someone you know needs fast medical evaluation by extensively trained professionals, contact our office in Albuquerque or Los Lunas today!
When you or a loved one has a health issue that requires medical attention, it can be a tough decision whether to wait to see your regular doctor, visit an Albuquerque urgent care clinic. Urgent care centers are dedicated to providing alternative medical care for injuries and illnesses when your primary care physician is not available in situations that do not require a visit to the ER.
What is Urgent Care?
Urgent care centers offer patients basic medical services with shorter wait times and access to healthcare professionals for non-emergency illnesses, injuries, and other medical conditions. No appointments or prior approval from your primary care physician is needed to visit an urgent care facility and get the medical care you need.
When Should You Use Urgent Care?
An Albuquerque urgent care clinic can be used when you or a loved one is suffering from non-emergency medical conditions that are not life-threatening yet require urgent professional care. Examples of injuries and illnesses that can be treated at an urgent care facility include:
Sprains and fractures
Minor cuts that need stitches
Mild breathing difficulties
X-rays and lab tests
Fever or flu-like symptoms
When Should You Go to the ER?
Hospital emergency rooms provide immediate care for serious and life-threatening injuries and illnesses, such as a loss of consciousness, chest pain, compound fractures, seizures, and head injuries. If you or a loved one is experiencing a serious health emergency, you should dial 911 or immediately head to the nearest emergency room.
Contact Duke City Urgent Care Today
Duke City Urgent Care is an Albuquerque urgent care clinic that is proud to offer high quality care to patients of all ages. If you or someone you know needs fast medical evaluation by extensively trained professionals, contact our urgent care clinic in Albuquerque or Los Lunas today!
Hydrating your child during hot summer months is easier said than done, especially if they prefer sugary sodas and juices to water. The warning signs that your child isn’t drinking enough water are nausea, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. A brown or dark yellow urine color may indicate serious dehydration and should be supplemented fast with a lot of water.
Of course, keeping your child hydrated just during the summer isn’t quite good enough, and our tips for hydration can be replicated year-round for optimal athletic and learning capacity. For instance, did you know that regular hydration improves a child’s capacity to focus and think? While summer months pose the greatest threat of dehydration, consider how encouraging constant hydration will improve your child’s performance in a wide array of activities.
How do I get my child to stay hydrated?
From a young age raise your child on a steady regimen of plenty of water, and 2% milk for added vitamins if desired. Children may not stay on top of their hydration, therefore try carrying around their water and asking if they need some every hour, or more often when it is especially hot. Your child can have sugary sodas and juices in moderation but be cautioned that their body will dehydrate faster in order to metabolize the sugar in those drinks.
When your child is off at school or daycare consider sending them with a refillable water bottle so they are encouraged to drink water regularly throughout the day. Remember that proper hydration contributes to a focused mindset during school.
What should I do for my active child?
If your child is active during the summer months they are going to be more susceptible to dehydration if they aren’t staying on top of it. When it comes to balancing what your child should drink during active sports, particularly water vs sports drinks, the American Academy of Pediatrics is unanimous with their advice: plain, simple water. 4-8 ounces of water for every 20 minutes of activity is plenty to maintain healthy hydration.
Are you in Albuquerque, New Mexico and need pediatric and urgent care for your whole family?
Linda Baker is a 1996 graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee. She is nationally certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner with over 24 years experience in primary care of the family, urgent care & occupational medicine. She holds a national license as a Certified Medical Examiner for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and is welcoming DOT exams in both our Louisiana & Los Lunas clinics.
Steven Cardenas
Steven Cardenas
Steven Cardenas is a Physician Assistant who graduated from the USC School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program in Los Angeles in 1983. He has 15 years experience as an occupational medicine provider. He is also a Nationally Registered DOT Examiner. He relocated to New Mexico in 2001 from California. He also worked for 7 years at the University of New Mexico Emergency/Level 1 Trauma Center as an emergency medicine provider.
Tym Candelaria
Certified Medical Assistant
Tym Candelaria is a Certified Medical Assistant with over 12 years’ experience in the medical field. Tym received his Medical Assistant Certificate with honors from Apollo College in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2019. Tym has over 10 years’ experience in Occupational Medicine, working both clinical and operations. He is also registered with the FMCSA to assist DOT certified providers in completing DOT exams and proper reporting of exams. Tym is the Manager of the Occupational Medicine program for Duke City Urgent Care and has many years experience managing high paced occupational medical facilities.
Dr. Kevin Kirkpatrick
Emergency physician
Dr. Kevin Kirkpatrick is a board certified emergency physician with over 24 years of experience since graduating from the UNM Med School and Scott and White Hospital in Temple, TX. Originally from Oklahoma, he grew up in Santa Fe and considers New Mexico his home. He is proud to have served in the NM Air National Guard. As an IFR rated private pilot and physician he has a full understanding of the operational and medical issues pertinent to aviation and has substantial experience in aviation medicine as the medical director and a flight physician for AirCARE1 International for 14 years. Kevin became an AME and ATCS examiner for the FAA in 2019 to serve pilots and air traffic controllers.