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Mercy Urgent Care

Asheville, Brevard, Burnsville, Columbus, Waynesville & Weaverville NC

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Waynesville location to offer free flu shots, Saturday Jan 25, 12-3 p.m.

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Mercy Urgent Care, a not-for-profit health care organization headquartered in Asheville, is offering a second round of free flu shots on Saturday, Jan. 25, at its new, soon-to-open facility in Waynesville.

Dedicated to providing compassionate, affordable care to all in Western North Carolina, Mercy will administer up to 100 free vaccines from 12-3 p.m. in the lobby of the new location, at 120 Frazier St., Suite 6. Located just off the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway Exit 102, this will be Mercy’s eighth location in Western North Carolina.

The free flu shots, which regularly cost $34.99 before insurance, will be available for ages 8 and up, while supplies last, only at the future Mercy Urgent Care Waynesville on Saturday from 12-3 p.m. Vaccines are available at regular cost at all times at the other seven Mercy Urgent Care locations across Western North Carolina. Covered by many health care plans, the flu vaccine reduces a person’s risk of developing a flu-related illness by an average of 61 percent.

Each season, between 5 and 20 percent of the U.S. population comes down with the virus — and the 2019/2020 season in particular has proven itself particularly severe early on, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mercy Urgent Care Waynesville is slated to open on Tuesday, Feb. 4, and will be open seven days per week, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This new location will bring high-quality, affordable and convenient medical care for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries to Haywood County, giving patients in the Waynesville area access to walk-in care at a fraction of the cost of an ER visit.

Got the flu? Urgent care vs. ER

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With flu season in North Carolina currently at its peak, medical experts are urging those with non-life-threatening flu symptoms to stay away from hospital emergency rooms and instead seek treatment at urgent care centers.

Why urgent care over ER?

During peak flu season, emergency departments around the country flood with patients experiencing mild to moderate flu-like symptoms, and many who seek treatment in emergency rooms are not sick enough to be there. For otherwise healthy individuals, flu symptoms can be treated quickly and most effectively at urgent care clinics or primary care providers — and hospital emergency departments can then focus on the patients that most need intensive care.

Additionally, many severe colds often mimic flu-like symptoms, and visiting an emergency room without the flu exposes you to others that do have the virus — putting you at risk for coming down with a more serious illness.

Visit an Urgent Care Clinic: Typical symptoms of the flu in a healthy person are: high fever, muscle or body aches, cough or sore throat, congestion, exhaustion and loss of appetite. For these symptoms, patients should see their primary care provider or visit an urgent care clinic for treatment.

Visit an Emergency Room: Flu-related complications considered severe are: chest pain, confusion or altered mental status, persistent vomiting, fever with rash, respiratory distress or difficulty breathing. Patients experiencing these symptoms should go to the emergency room. If a patient is in a high-risk group — infants, toddlers, individuals 65 and older, pregnant women or those with severe chronic illnesses or suppressed immune systems — a visit to the emergency room may also be necessary.

Here at Mercy Urgent Care, we’re prepared to treat your mild-to-moderate flu symptoms, so that you can get back to feeling your best as soon as possible. If you or a loved one is experiencing the above non-life-threatening flu symptoms, consider stopping in at one of Mercy’s six urgent care facilities in West, South and East Asheville, Brevard, Weaverville or Burnsville. We hope you feel better soon!