One evening in February 2017, Sarah Dudley’s husband, Joseph, started to feel sick.
He had a high fever, his head and body ached, and he seemed disoriented, she said. The Dudleys had a decision to make: go to the hospital emergency room or to an urgent care clinic near their home in Des Moines, Iowa.
“ERs take five, six, seven hours before you’re seen by a doctor, depending on how many people are there,” Sarah said. “I know that I can go to an urgent care clinic and be seen within an hour.”
