What Do We Treat?

A lot. In fact, we treat just about everything outside of severe life threatening emergencies.

Some Common Injuries and Illnesses We Treat:

Illnesses:	Procedures:
Coughs / Cold / Flu / Sore Throat	Dehydration
Allergies / Asthma / COPD (breathing treatments)	Rashes
Abdominal Pain	Skin Infections
Migraines	Nosebleed (including cautery)
Burns / Bites / Stings	Lacerations (Cuts)
STD Testing & Treatment	Abscess Drainage (including throat)
Kidney Stones / Infections	Foreign Body Removal from Eyes / Nose / Ears
Pregnancy Related Issues / GYN Complaints	Fracture Reduction / Splinting
Palpitations	Joint Dislocation Reduction
Bladder/Kidney Infections	Temporary Nerve Blocks for Dental Pain
Sprains / Strains / Falls	Updating tDap (tetanus, diptheria, & pertussis)
Minor Head Injury	Eye Injuries /Eye Pressure Checks (glaucoma)
Nausea / Vomiting / Diarhea	Changing Feeding Tubes or Catheters
IV Hydration (in certain cases)	AND MORE…

When to head straight to ER

If you are experiencing any of the following issues, please go straight to the emergency room:

Severe incapacitating pain especially in the chest, abdomen, or head
Sudden inability to use or feel an arm or leg; sudden loss of vision or ability to speak; this may signal a stroke – head to the ER right away
Severe bleeding
Severe Shortness of Breath
Multiple Seizures
Head injury resulting in persistent moderate to severe headache or persistent confusion; Head injury while using blood thinners

Physical Exams

Physical Exams for School/Sports/Camp – $50
- PLEASE BRING FORMS
Pre-employment and general employee health exams – $65
- (Imaging or lab work will be an extra charge.)

*Please Bring Any Required Paperwork

Testing / Lab Services

We can get your results quicker with our own in-house lab.

We offer a variety of tests to help us assess your health/illness.

Onsite Lab

We have a onsite lab for quick results on some common tests (results will be available before you leave).

We go beyond the standard urgent care labs such as strep, flu, and very basic fingerstick tests, and have invested in hospital quality lab machinery for reliable and accurate lab testing.

We also contract with local labs such as Quest or LabCorp for more sophisticated testing, if needed.

Our lab will test:

CBC (for anemia infections)
Electrolytes
Liver Enzymes
Pancreatic Enzyme
Urinalysis
Urine Pregnancy
Blood Glucose Check
Fecal Occult Blood

The selection of above lab tests are designed to answer 80% of common clinical complaints in most ERs.

EKG

EKGs are a very quick and effective way of monitoring your heart. Many urgent cares do not have staff available onsite to accurately interpret EKGs and therefore unnecessarily send patients to the ER for further evaluation. Out onsite board certified emergency medicine physician will read and interpret your EKG immediately for you. Yet another advantage of coming to our clinic!

Imaging

Onsite X-Ray

We have our own onsite x-ray machine. This gives us the ability to evaluate injuries in depth as well as evaluate for pneumonia and other pathologies.

Telemedicine

We offer convenience coupled with a more personal doctor-patient relationship.

Armstrong Urgent Care is offering Telehealth depending on your medical issue.

The process is as follows:

Call the clinic number (559-326-7349). The staff will walk you through the registration process and screen you to see if a tele visit would be appropriate.
We will then contact you through your chosen method of contact. Currently HIPPAA restrictions have been lifted and multiple platforms can be used including FaceTime, Skype, Facebook messenger.
Prescriptions , if needed will be sent in electronically. We don’t prescribe controlled substances for telehealth appointments.
If you need to be seen in person, we will coordinate a time for you to come in. For example, if x-rays or labs are needed, or if a physical exam is needed.

Telehealth visits will be available during our regular clinic hours. Times are subject to change.

Specialist Referrals

Generally the following 3 scenarios will occur when a referral is needed:

1) ER Referral:

You are sick and in need of ER level care/evaluation/admission to the hospital.

Our doctor has trained locally and knows the capabilities of every hospital in town. It does nothing to send a patient to a hospital if you are not aware whether the hospital can actually handle the particular issue you might have. I will call the ER, make sure its the right place for you to go, and have a doctor-to-doctor conversation with the ER staff to help expedite your care when you arrive there.

2) Primary Care Referral (Return to Your Primary Care Doctor):

Most conditions will be acutely treated by us and we will provide you with a succinct summary of what we did so there is clear communication to your primary doctor. If needed we will call them as well.

3) Specialist Referral:

Again 2 scenarios here:

a) Urgent Referral

Our doctor brings with him a wealth of relationships with multiple specialists built over a 20 year career in emergency medicine, including 17 years in the Central Valley. Specialists are not all the same. I have, over the years of emergency practice, developed a keen sense of who is the best at what they do for urgent conditions. I have also realized that doctor-to-doctor conversation in urgent settings is the ideal practice. It cuts through a lot of red tape and gets your problem highlighted with the person who is the final stop: the specialist! I will personally call the doctor in case an urgent referral is needed.

b) Non Urgent Referral

This is best handled by your primary care doctor due to insurance requirements. We will, however, be ready to assist – to the best of our ability – if you are not able to go through this process for any reason.

Other Services

Hospice and Palliative Care

Our physician has an additional board certification and 5+ years of experience in Hospice and Palliative care medicine. (Learn More).

If you or a loved one has a terminal or life limiting severe illness, we can assist with hospice referral. Our physician can follow your care while in hospice.