Why You Should Go to Urgent Care Instead of the Emergency Room
Life can be unpredictable. Injuries and illnesses seem to come out of nowhere sometimes, and how we react when facing such predicaments in the short-term will often make all the difference in the world when it comes to protecting our long-term health.
When that alarming high fever keeps rising overnight or that slip on the ice damages more than just your ego, the need to see a healthcare professional is immediate. Deciding where to go is another story altogether, though.
Understanding the differences between Urgent Care and Emergency Rooms
Urgent care clinics (sometimes called walk-in clinics) conveniently serve as an option when you are unable to secure an appointment with your normal primary care doctor. Though similar to urgent care, the emergency room (ER) should only be sought out for circumstances that are much more serious, such as a life-threatening illness or injury.
Here are some reasons to avoid the ER and use your local urgent care clinic instead:
- The severity of your illness or injury.
A trip to the ER is for when rapid or advanced treatments are needed. For example, a medical condition that may require surgery is a good reason to rush into the ER. Or, in other words, something you might refer to as an emergency.
You should seek out your nearest ER if you are experiencing the following symptoms:
- Severe burns
- Chest pains
- Dislocated joints or broken bones
- Seizures
- Head injuries
Here are the types of symptoms that can be evaluated at an urgent care clinic, rather than the ER:
- Flu symptoms
- Fevers
- Earaches
- Sore throats
- Migraines
- Minor burns
- Diarrhea
- Simple fractures or sprains
- Infections
- Dehydration
Urgent care is quicker.
It has been reported that many of the nation’s emergency rooms are “at” full capacity or even “over” full capacity. This means that the majority of ER patients are served within a four-hour time period, and only a quarter of them receive service in less than two hours! Thankfully, statistics show that urgent care clinics are markedly faster than the ER. The majority of urgent care patients are served within one hour or less. By comparison, the average ER patient will only have about a ten percent chance of being served that swiftly.
Save money by using urgent care.
We all love to save money. If saving time isn’t enough incentive for you to opt for urgent care over the ER, than the dramatic effect it can have on your pocketbook likely will!
On average, a trip to the ER costs over five times more than it does to use an urgent care clinic. That means that you could ultimately pay about $700 more by going to the ER, when you can be served faster (and cheaper) at an urgent care instead!
Advice for continuing care.
While urgent care clinics are great options for when your regular primary doctor is booked for the day or otherwise unavailable, if you don’t have a primary doctor, an urgent clinic can help refer you to a nearby practitioner for future checkups. This may also be the case if your continuing treatment will require you to see a specialist.