Urgent Care vs. Emergency Care: The Basics | What’s Urgent Care? |
When to Choose Urgent Care | When to Go to the ER | When to Choose ER
Overview
You’d typically see your doctor when you’re not feeling well and want a medical opinion.
But what if you need more immediate attention? Say you’ve cut a piece of your finger off while working on a home renovation project, or your child fell hard in the playground, and their foot is painful and keeps swelling.
Whatever your situation, medical care is needed as soon as possible. Is it time to go to an urgent care center? An emergency room? Are they different? The same? All you know is that the finger won’t stop bleeding.
It’s tough to put aside a highly stressful situation to figure out whether to go to urgent care or an emergency center. And you could be forgiven for not knowing the answer right away. In fact, most people don’t know.
Since every second counts with medical emergencies, let’s look at the two types of care that could respond to your needs most efficiently and quickly.
The two facilities are pretty distinct, with the differences rooted in the seriousness of the medical condition at hand.
Urgent Care vs. Emergency Care: The Basics
At the most fundamental level, urgent care is for injuries or illnesses that are not life-threatening, while the emergency room (ER) is for more serious, potentially life-threatening medical situations.
There’s also a difference in wait times, which, according to studies, results in a patient preference for urgent care centers over ERs during urgent care’s hours of operation.[1]
While in urgent care centers, one can be seen by a medical professional quicker; ERs can have longer wait times as patients are seen in order of multiple priority queues determined by triage staff upon arrival.
Urgent care centers are also playing a more pivotal role in the overall healthcare system as visits to ER are consistently trending upwards, often resulting in overcrowding.[2]
Here are some more differences in detail.
What’s Urgent Care?
Urgent care clinics have set hours of operation and are usually staffed with nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare professionals – although physicians may not always be present.
Some of these facilities have diagnostic departments for basic lab and imaging work to understand better the conditions they are presented with and to provide the most effective treatment plan after the visit.
Due to these reasons, urgent care centers tend to cost less than ER visits.
When to Choose Urgent Care
Here are some examples of conditions that an urgent care facility can handle. Please note that your urgent care center may have an established list of conditions they treat, so it’s a good idea to check beforehand whenever possible.
- Sinus infections
- Fever
- Back pain/muscle pain
- Minor burns or cuts
- Ear infections
- Diarrhea
- Sore throat
- Skin conditions
- Sprains
- Joint pain
- Upper respiratory infection
- Urinary tract infections
- Sexually transmitted infections
- Nausea or vomiting
When to Go to the ER
Understandably, ERs operate 24/7 and are staffed with medical professionals specially trained in emergency medicine. However, they also have quick access to diagnostic departments like labs and X-ray facilities.
Usually, medical specialties such as cardiologists and internists are also available in the same facility or can be accessed relatively quickly from the ER.
In addition, overnight or more extended stays (depending on the medical necessity) can be quickly arranged as ERs tend to be departments of hospitals – although freestanding ERs have become more common.[3]
Patients who are not breathing, are unconscious or have multiple traumas are seen first – regardless of arrival time in ER. This protocol is prioritized by less severe threats to life and limb down to issues that may be chronic but could deteriorate within a few hours without intervention, such as very high blood pressure.
Conditions that Require Emergent Care
Here are some common examples of when seeking ER help is appropriate. Please note that this list is not exhaustive.
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain/pressure
- Severe, uncontrollable bleeding
- Compound fractures (when bone shows through the skin)
- Seizures
- Severe abdominal pain
- Concussions or head injuries
- Loss of consciousness
- Paralysis or weakness
- Sudden, severe headache
- Head injuries
The Takeaway
Awareness of what urgent care and ER do can save money and time, but most importantly, knowing where to go can connect you to the correct type of care your condition needs more efficiently.
If you are experiencing symptoms of heart attack or stroke, such as shortness of breath or severe chest pain, or have severe bodily trauma, never attempt to drive yourself to ER. Always call 911 in these instances.
References:
- Allen, L., Cummings, J. R., & Hockenberry, J. M. (2021). The impact of urgent care centers on nonemergent emergency department visits. Health services research, 56(4), 721–730. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13631
- Coster, J. E., Turner, J. K., Bradbury, D., & Cantrell, A. (2017). Why Do People Choose Emergency and Urgent Care Services? A Rapid Review Utilizing a Systematic Literature Search and Narrative Synthesis. Academic emergency medicine: official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, 24(9), 1137–1149. https://doi.org/10.1111/acem.13220
- Alexander, A. J., & Dark, C. (2019). Freestanding Emergency Departments: What Is Their Role in Emergency Care?. Annals of emergency medicine, 74(3), 325–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2019.03.018
