3. Blood banks
Blood banks allow donors to donate blood and platelets while also storing and sorting blood into components that can be used most effectively by patients.
“Red blood cells carry oxygen, platelets help the blood clot and plasma has specific proteins that allows proper regulation of coagulation and healing,” writes the American Society of Hematology. Sometimes patients need these particular components specifically, and sometimes they just need lots of blood. For example, a single car accident victim could require as many as 100 pints of blood.
Blood is essential for human life, and it can’t be manufactured—only donated. So these facilities work to build the supply for patients who need it.
4. Clinics and medical offices
The definition of a clinic is “a facility for diagnosis and treatment of outpatients.” There are many healthcare facilities that fit that definition across a wide variety of treatment specialties.
Many people go to a clinic for routine doctor’s appointments and checkups. These healthcare facilities can be a physician’s private practice, a group practice setting or a corporately owned clinic that may be connected to a larger healthcare system or hospital.
Clinics cover a lot of ground in healthcare. For example, you could visit a dental clinic to have a toothache investigated, a physical therapy clinic to recover from an athletic injury or a pediatric speech therapy clinic to help your child overcome an articulation disorder.
If there is a specialized health area you need to see an expert for, then odds are that there’s a clinic somewhere to accommodate you. The goal of these clinics is to give people preventative care and important diagnoses with as much convenience as possible.
That goal has also led to “walk-in” clinics becoming situated in grocery and convenience stores, malls and even airports. These clinics allow patients to get a flu shot or receive a prescription without making an appointment at their physician’s office. While many medical providers believe that a continued relationship with a provider is better for patients’ long-term health, the speed, convenience and sometimes lower cost of a walk-in clinic can be ideal for a quick need.