Services
Pneumonia Care
near Miami Beach
A board-certified physician examines you, confirms pneumonia with a same-visit digital chest X-ray, checks your oxygen, and starts treatment the same day. No appointment, and clear criteria for when it is serious enough for the ER.
Open seven days a week. Physician visit from $195, chest X-ray from $120. Most insurance accepted.
Joint Commission AccreditedThe only one in Florida
Can urgent care treat pneumonia?
Yes, for most cases. The majority of community-acquired pneumonia, the mild to moderate cases, can be fully diagnosed and treated in our urgent care setting. A board-certified physician examines you, captures a digital chest X-ray, and checks your oxygen level in the same visit, then prescribes the right antibiotic when bacterial pneumonia is confirmed.
Pneumonia is an infection of the lung tissue itself, where the tiny air sacs fill with fluid or pus. It is more serious than a chest cold, and the single thing that confirms it is a chest X-ray. At our Surfside clinic, minutes from Miami Beach, that X-ray is on-site and read in real time, so you get a diagnosis and a plan in one urgent care visit. The physician’s other job is just as important: spotting the smaller number of severe cases that belong in a hospital.
Recognizing pneumonia symptoms
Pneumonia usually brings a cough that produces phlegm, a fever with chills, and a chest that hurts when you breathe deeply or cough. Shortness of breath and a heavy fatigue often follow, and older adults can feel confused or simply run down without a high fever at all.
The combination that should bring you in is a productive cough with fever, chest discomfort that tracks with your breathing, and breathlessness or fatigue that is out of proportion to a normal cold. Those raise concern for pneumonia and prompt a chest X-ray at TrufaMED.
Walking pneumonia and severe pneumonia are not the same
Pneumonia spans a wide range. At one end is the mild, lingering kind that lets you keep moving. At the other is a severe infection that drops your oxygen and needs hospital care. Knowing where you fall shapes the whole plan, and the physician decides that the same visit.
Walking pneumonia
The atypical kind, most often caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae. It comes on slowly and feels milder than classic pneumonia, so people keep going to work and school, which is where the name comes from.
- A cough that has lasted two or more weeks, often dry then productive
- Low-grade fever under 101 degrees, fatigue, and headache
- Feeling sick, but not sick enough to stop moving
- Treated with a macrolide antibiotic; the cough can linger four to six weeks
Severe pneumonia
A heavier bacterial infection, often from Streptococcus pneumoniae, that makes you genuinely ill and can lower your oxygen. It needs prompt antibiotics, close monitoring, and sometimes hospital admission.
- High fever, shaking chills, and feeling acutely unwell
- Shortness of breath at rest and rapid, shallow breathing
- Oxygen saturation that drops below 92 percent
- Higher risk in older adults, smokers, and people with COPD
If you have been coughing for more than ten days and are not improving with rest and over-the-counter medication, come in. A physician exam and chest X-ray can confirm walking pneumonia or rule it out.
The chest X-ray confirms pneumonia, the same visit
By symptoms alone, pneumonia and bronchitis overlap. The chest X-ray is the test that settles it, and ours is on-site, so the physician reads it on screen within minutes rather than sending you to an outside imaging center.
Physician examination
A board-certified physician listens to your lungs for focal crackles or reduced breath sounds, reviews your history and symptoms, and decides which tests actually change your care.
Digital chest X-ray, on-site
When pneumonia is suspected, we capture a digital chest X-ray and read it in the room. Pneumonia shows a focal area of whiteness called a consolidation; a clear film points away from it. Self-pay chest X-ray from $120.
Pulse oximetry
We measure your oxygen saturation at every visit. A reading below 92 percent at rest is a key marker of severity and changes the plan, often toward closer monitoring or an emergency referral.
Lab testing when indicated
When it changes the plan, a CBC and basic metabolic panel help gauge how the body is responding. Rapid flu, COVID, and RSV testing identifies a viral driver behind the pneumonia.
Reading the X-ray pattern
Lobar pneumonia produces a well-defined whitening in one lobe, bronchopneumonia a patchier pattern, and atypical pneumonia subtle hazy opacities. The physician reviews the images directly and explains them before you leave.
Same-visit prescriptions
When an antibiotic is warranted, it is chosen for the likely organism and your allergy history and sent to your pharmacy from the visit. Straightforward outpatient cases need no separate follow-up appointment.
Treating bacterial pneumonia the same day
Once a chest X-ray confirms pneumonia and the physician judges you safe for outpatient care, treatment starts right away. The earlier the right antibiotic begins, the better outpatient pneumonia tends to go.
Most healthy adults start feeling meaningfully better within five to seven days of the right antibiotic, though full recovery, with the fatigue lifting and exercise tolerance returning, takes four to eight weeks. The infiltrate on the X-ray can take six to twelve weeks to clear on imaging even after you feel well, which is normal.
Targeted antibiotics
For outpatient bacterial pneumonia, the physician selects an antibiotic for the likely organism, commonly azithromycin, doxycycline, or amoxicillin-clavulanate, with the course tailored to severity and your history.
Finish the full course
The standard course runs five days for azithromycin to seven to ten days for amoxicillin-clavulanate or doxycycline. Completing it matters. Stopping early once you feel better is a leading cause of treatment failure.
Supportive care
Rest, fluids, fever reducers such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, and a humidifier ease symptoms while the antibiotic works. An IV hydration or immune boost can help when fluids are hard to keep down.
A clear safety net
You leave with return precautions: the specific signs that mean you should come back or go to the ER. If symptoms worsen instead of improving over the first 48 to 72 hours, that is a signal to be re-checked.
Bacterial pneumonia benefits from antibiotics; many viral pneumonias do not. The physician weighs your exam, your X-ray, and your testing together to prescribe only what will actually help, and to recognize when a case needs more than outpatient care.
When pneumonia needs the emergency room
TrufaMED treats outpatient pneumonia. A subset of cases is severe and belongs in a hospital. If you notice any of these signs, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. We also stabilize anyone with critical findings and arrange immediate transfer.
- Severe shortness of breath at rest
- Bluish lips or fingertips
- Cannot speak in full sentences from breathlessness
- Oxygen saturation below 90 percent
- Very fast, shallow breathing
- New confusion or altered mental status
- High fever with shaking chills and a racing heart
- Coughing up blood, or chest pain with fainting
For a cough with fever, chest discomfort, and mild breathlessness while you are still stable, walk in to TrufaMED for same-day physician care. Anyone whose oxygen is below 92 percent or who meets severe-case criteria is referred to the emergency department with full clinical documentation. Explore our urgent care services.
If you are high-risk, come in early
Pneumonia is more dangerous in certain groups, and the threshold for hospital-level care is lower for them. If you fall into one of these categories, see a physician at the first signs of respiratory illness rather than waiting for symptoms to escalate.
Early antibiotic treatment measurably improves outcomes in these groups. In older adults especially, a serious infection can show up as a productive cough and feeling unwell without a high fever, so the usual warning signs may be muted.
Pneumonia or bronchitis? The chest X-ray decides
These two overlap in symptoms, but pneumonia carries a far greater risk and is treated differently. Telling them apart by symptoms alone is unreliable, even for experienced physicians, which is exactly why we read a chest X-ray on-site the same visit.
Bronchitis
Inflammation of the bronchial tubes, the airways, with no consolidation on the X-ray. In a healthy adult it is almost always viral and managed supportively over a few weeks.
- Cough, phlegm, and a low-grade fever, rarely above 101 degrees
- Oxygen level usually normal at rest
- Antibiotics typically give no benefit
Pneumonia
Infection of the lung tissue itself, with a focal consolidation on the X-ray. It often needs antibiotics, monitoring, and sometimes hospital care.
- Higher fever, productive cough, and feeling genuinely ill
- Oxygen level can drop below 92 percent
- Focal crackles or reduced breath sounds on the lung exam
A productive cough with a high fever, low oxygen, or focal findings on the lung exam points toward pneumonia. The chest X-ray gives the definitive answer the day you walk in. Compare with bronchitis care near Miami Beach.
Walk-in pneumonia care for Miami Beach and nearby
When a cough turns into a fever, chest pain, and breathlessness, you want answers fast, not a long emergency-room wait for a problem that may be treatable as an outpatient. Our clinic at 9445 Harding Avenue in Surfside sits directly on the coast between Miami Beach and Bal Harbour, roughly a 10 to 12 minute drive from Miami Beach across the causeway and about five minutes from Bal Harbour. Walk in without an appointment, seven days a week, and a board-certified physician will see you.
Because we are a full urgent care serving Miami Beach, the chest X-ray, the oxygen check, the lab work, and the prescription all happen under one Joint Commission-accredited roof. There is no referral to an outside imaging center and no second appointment. You get a diagnosis and a treatment plan before you leave. Free street parking is available.
For a medication question or a recovery check on a known case, our physician-led telehealth visits are available seven days a week. For ongoing respiratory issues or recurring infections, our urgent care membership gives the regular physician access that higher-risk patients benefit from.
A board-certified physician leads every shift
At TrufaMED, your pneumonia is evaluated by a board-certified physician, and your chest X-ray is read on-site, not sent off and read days later. Our clinical team is led by a surgeon and an emergency physician.
Dr. Naidoo brings extensive adult and pediatric emergency, trauma, and critical-care experience from high-volume emergency departments across the East Coast. His training means a serious respiratory infection is read by a physician who knows when a case is safe for outpatient care and when it needs the hospital.
Dr. Gedalia earned his medical degree from Louisiana State University and completed his surgical residency at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York. He oversees clinical protocols across all TrufaMED services, so the standard that governs your pneumonia visit is set by a physician who treats the conditions behind the imaging.
This physician-first approach is why TrufaMED carries Joint Commission accreditation, a distinction held by only eight urgent care centers in the United States. The same standard that governs accredited hospital departments governs our clinic.
Pneumonia, answered
What patients across Miami Beach, Surfside, and Bal Harbour ask most about a cough that turns into something more.
Can urgent care diagnose and treat pneumonia?
Yes. Most community-acquired pneumonia, the mild to moderate cases, can be fully diagnosed and treated in our urgent care setting. A board-certified physician examines you, captures a digital chest X-ray, and checks your oxygen level all in the same visit. If the diagnosis is confirmed and you meet outpatient criteria, we prescribe the right antibiotic before you leave. Severe cases, or anyone with an oxygen level below 92 percent, are referred to the emergency department with full clinical documentation.
How is pneumonia diagnosed in one visit at TrufaMED?
The chest X-ray is the deciding test, and ours is on-site, so there is no outside imaging center and no waiting days for a report. The physician listens to your lungs, checks your oxygen with pulse oximetry, and when the picture suggests pneumonia, captures a digital chest X-ray and reads it on screen within minutes. Pneumonia shows up as a focal area of whiteness (a consolidation) in part of the lung, while clear bronchitis does not. Lab work such as a CBC is added when it changes the plan.
How do I know if my cough is walking pneumonia?
Walking pneumonia, usually caused by Mycoplasma, tends to come on slowly: a cough that has lasted two or more weeks, a low-grade fever under 101 degrees, fatigue, and headache, without the dramatic presentation of classic pneumonia. People often feel sick but not sick enough to stop moving. If you have been coughing for more than ten days and are not improving with rest and over-the-counter medication, come in. A physician exam and chest X-ray can confirm or rule it out.
What is the difference between pneumonia and bronchitis?
Both cause a cough and chest symptoms, but they are different. Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchial tubes (the airways). It rarely causes a fever above 101 degrees and does not show an infiltrate on a chest X-ray, and it is almost always viral, so it does not benefit from antibiotics. Pneumonia is an infection of the lung tissue itself, usually with fever, a productive cough, and a consolidation on imaging, and it often does need antibiotics. The exam plus a chest X-ray is the most reliable way to tell them apart. Read more about bronchitis care near Miami Beach.
How long should I take antibiotics for pneumonia?
The standard course for community-acquired pneumonia in otherwise healthy adults runs from 5 days (for azithromycin) to 7 to 10 days (for amoxicillin-clavulanate or doxycycline). The exact length depends on the antibiotic, the severity, and how you respond. Finishing the full course is essential. Stopping early once you feel better is a leading cause of treatment failure and antibiotic resistance. Your physician specifies the precise duration when prescribing.
How long does pneumonia recovery take?
Most healthy adults start to feel meaningfully better within 5 to 7 days of starting the right antibiotic. Full recovery, meaning the fatigue lifts, the cough settles, and your exercise tolerance returns, usually takes 4 to 8 weeks. The infiltrate on the chest X-ray can take 6 to 12 weeks to clear on imaging even after the symptoms are gone. Walking pneumonia from Mycoplasma can leave a lingering cough for 4 to 6 weeks even with treatment.
When should I go to the ER instead of urgent care for pneumonia?
Go to the emergency room or call 911 for severe shortness of breath at rest, bluish lips or fingertips, an inability to speak in full sentences, confusion, an oxygen level below 90 percent, a very fast breathing rate, chest pain with fainting, or coughing up blood. Those point to severe pneumonia that needs hospital-level care. For a cough with fever, mild breathlessness, and feeling unwell but stable, walk in to TrufaMED. We treat outpatient pneumonia and arrange immediate transfer for anyone who needs more.
Is pneumonia contagious?
It depends on the cause. Bacterial pneumonia from Streptococcus pneumoniae is less directly contagious, and most people exposed to the organism do not develop pneumonia. Walking pneumonia from Mycoplasma is notably contagious and spreads through respiratory droplets in households and close-contact settings. Viral pneumonias tied to influenza or COVID spread the same way the underlying virus does. While you have symptoms, cover coughs, wash your hands, and limit close contact.
Should I get the pneumococcal vaccine?
The pneumococcal vaccines protect against Streptococcus pneumoniae, the most common bacterial cause of pneumonia. The CDC recommends Prevnar 20 for all adults 65 and older, and for adults 19 to 64 with certain conditions such as asthma, COPD, diabetes, chronic heart disease, or a weakened immune system. TrufaMED administers pneumococcal vaccines as a walk-in service. Your physician reviews your history and recommends the right vaccine at your visit.
Does TrufaMED accept insurance for a pneumonia visit?
Yes. We accept Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Oscar Health, and Medicare, among most major plans. A pneumonia visit (physician exam, chest X-ray, and prescriptions) is a standard urgent care visit covered by most plans. Self-pay patients are welcome, with clear pricing up front: the physician visit starts from $195 and a chest X-ray from $120. Call (305) 537-6396 to confirm your plan before you come in.
What patients say
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Care grounded in recognized authorities
Diagnosis and treatment follow guidance from national health authorities and accreditation standards.
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Respiratory & related care
Urgent Care Bronchitis Care Flu Treatment Digital Chest X-Ray Flu, COVID & RSV TestingFind us in Surfside
Hours
Monday–Friday 9 AM – 9 PM
Saturday 11 AM – 11 PM
Sunday 12 PM – 8 PM
Walk in any time during operating hours. No appointment needed.
Contact
Phone (305) 537-6396
WhatsApp +1 (305) 842-9801
Email [email protected]
For a life-threatening emergency, call 911. TrufaMED treats non-life-threatening conditions.
Cough, fever, and trouble breathing? Get seen today.
Walk in to our Surfside clinic, minutes from Miami Beach. A board-certified physician will examine you, take a chest X-ray to confirm pneumonia, check your oxygen, and have a treatment plan ready before you leave.
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