Urgent care or ER

When you have a medical emergency on your hands, choosing where to turn for care can be confusing. Let’s look at the difference between an urgent care center and an emergency room.

When should you call 911?

If you have a life threatening situation, call 911.

• Do not drive if you have severe chest pain or bleeding, or have symptoms of stroke or heart attack.
• Don’t fight traffic to get to the ER.
• Emergency responders are trained to stabilize patients before they arrive in the emergency room.

Emergency Room: Life-threatening injuries or conditions. They can handle surgical procedures. Most hospitals have an emergency room that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

As patients arrive, the nurse evaluates their acuity, or severity. While high-severity patients take top priority in the ER, you may experience longer wait times if there are other patients with more serious issues. If your symptoms worsens while waiting, let the staff know, that may bump up your acuity level. Otherwise, the average wait time is 2 hours and up.

Average emergency room costs vary wildly based on treatment and it is much higher than urgent care.

An emergency room may be best if you experience:

• Heart attack, chest pain, or chest pressure
• Severe allergic reactions
• Blurry or loss of vision
• Seizure or loss of consciousness
• Deep wounds
• Head injuries

Studies show over 70% of emergency departments visits are unnecessary or could have been avoided. Urgent care is an option when your situation is low risk.

Urgent Care: Less serious illness or injuries requiring immediate care but your regular doctor is not available. It is often equipped with X-ray, lab, and other diagnostic services. It is open with extended hours during weekends and no appointment necessary.

Urgent care generally costs less than emergency rooms.

Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis and average wait time is about 30 minutes.

Conditions treated frequently in urgent care include:

• Infections and earaches
• Mild burns or wounds requiring stitches
• Cold, coughes, and sore throat
• Mild asthma
• Strains and sprains
• Animal and bug bites
• Back and joint pain

Things to bring during your ER or urgent care visit

• Health insurance cards
• Driver’s license, state ID card, or passport
• Emergency contacts person information
• List of all medications and supplements you are currently taking
• List of allergies

Please leave anything valuable at home such as cash and jewelry.