You may be facing any sort of illness or injury that has brought on the fear of immediate emergency. The next question is whether to visit the emergency room or a nearby urgent care clinic. One important thing to remember when making this decision is that urgent care clinics are able to take care of almost all immediate issues without the wait line that exists at the ER.
What are Urgent Care Clinics?
The ER and urgent care are quite similar, only there is a bit of difference in how they take in patients. Urgent care is open 24 hours a day, taking walk-in urgent care patients at any time. However, the emergency room is likely to only immediately take in patients who face a life-threatening issue, meaning that you would likely have to wait for hours in the ER lobby.
24 Hour Walk In Clinic Locations
Urgent care clinics are willing to care for your emergencies the minute you walk in, and with no determination of whether your emergency care is more or less needed than another patient’s. Urgent care is able to handle many patients at any time due to the highly board-certified medical staff that are always on site. You will find experienced doctors, nurses, and even lab techs at urgent care centers, just as you would at the emergency room. Therefore, you have no reason to feel that a minor illness or injury needs to wait for an appointment at your family doctor.
ER Care Without the Wait
One of the greatest benefits of urgent care is that it offers 24 hour emergency care for all health issues, even those that may not require something extremely serious. Even if you face a small issue like fever, trouble breathing, stomach pain, insomnia, headaches, neck aches, aches and pains, and more. These would likely not be things taken on with any urgency at the ER, and there is often an urgent care clinic even closer to home than the hospital.
When To Use the Emergency Room vs. Urgent Care
The emergency room is often most reliable when symptoms occur that indicate the likelihood of a life-threatening illness. These are things like heart attacks, strokes, attempts at suicide, and more. Therefore, if you have something that is considered more of a minor illness, you will be waiting in the lobby for up to hours while others are treated. More importantly, with some of these minor illnesses and injuries, the long wait could make them more serious, and the immediate treatment at urgent care would be more valuable. It would be important to know that urgent care clinics are able to provide fast medical care.
