Americans both young and old will sometimes need medical assistance, and this means going to (or being taken to) a medical facility such as a 24 hour emergency care clinic or a convenient care clinic. It may be noted that many healthcare givers are different from each other, and while “urgent” and “emergency” may sound similar, there is a distinction to be made between those two levels of care. For the most part, emergency care is for life-threatening medical problems, while an urgent care center is best for everyday, non life-threatening medical cases. What is more, childrens urgent care clinics are a fine choice for when a child needs medical attention outside of their regular pediatrician’s hours. So, what to do about abdominal pain and the like? Often, “what to do about abdominal pain?” may be answered with going to the ER, just to be sure, but some clinics are a hybrid urgent/emergency model that some patients may find convenient.
Emergency Care
As described above, emergency care centers are for patients whose lives are in danger, or those with conditions too serious or tricky for urgent care clinic staff to handle. The doctors and physicians at emergency care centers will have the training, tools, and medicine to get a patient out of harm’s way and help them recover, and a patient may be taken here if they have suffered serious trauma. A patient may have suffered broken arms or legs, for example, or they may have been stabbed or shot with a bullet and may be bleeding heavily. And what to do about abdominal pain, serious chest pain, abdominal pain, and difficulty breathing? The answer to “what to do about abdominal pain?” is often the ER, and the same is true for chest pain and difficulty breathing. Such conditions can turn serious quite abruptly, and they can turn life-threatening. A responsible adult should take such a victim to the ER in most cases, just to be sure. If the abdominal pain isn’t so serious after all, the patient may be discharged and go to an urgent care center. Each case will be different, though.
Urgent Care
If emergency care is for life-threatening medical cases, then urgent care is for nearly everything else. A patient may go to urgent care (or take themselves there) because they have a minor, non life-threatening medical problem, and in many cases, going to urgent care is faster, cheaper, and more convenient than the ER. Not all medical cases call for the ER, and a patient may not like the stress and expense of an ER if they don’t even need that level of care. Instead, going to a walk in clinic is the best choices in most cases, and many thousands of these clinics can be found across the United States. Many are built into strip malls for easy access, and some others are built into major retailer such as Target or may be built into a hospital. In the latter case, a patient may visit the clinic and get care that is distinct from that of the hospital.
Many different ailments can be treated with urgent care. These clinics are staffed with nurse practitioners and physicians who can handle a wide variety of ailments, such as providing stitches and bandages for shallow cuts. Four in five urgent care clinics can provide treatment for bone fractures, and most of them can handle ankle or wrist sprains as well. And during influenza season, a patient may visit to get medicinal relief from the common cold or flu, or even the stomach flu. Patients can get ointment and lotion for sunburn and bad rashes, too, such as from poison ivy. Most of these clinics will also have a pharmacy on hand, complete with trained pharmacists. Retail clinics in particular feature such pharmacies, for the convenience of shoppers.
What about hybrid clinics? Put simply, these particular clinics offer urgent and emergency care alike, making them highly convenient for any patient in the area. This is especially helpful if a person can’t determine the level of care that a victim needs, so that person can take the victim to a hybrid clinic. The staff there will know how to administer care for that patient, no matter what.
