An accident or the sudden need for medical attention can interrupt your day without warning. Worrying symptoms can appear at times when your doctor isn’t available. These situations are stressful and it’s hard to think when you’re under stress. But you need to decide where to go to get medical care for yourself or a loved one. Understanding the levels of acute medical care before you need it can help you focus and get the appropriate help quickly.
Most everyone is familiar with the traditional hospital ER. But there are other options for immediate medical needs. One trend on the increase is retail health clinics in your local pharmacy. Another choice is an urgent care center, which is a cross between an ER and a clinic. You’ll see a doctor at either an ER or an urgent care center. But each level excels at meeting different healthcare needs.
A hospital ER—or dialing 911—is the only place to go for life-threatening symptoms or situations:
Heart attack symptoms including chest pain, trouble breathing, and clammy skin
Stroke symptoms including trouble speaking or understanding speech, or sudden weakness in the face, arm or leg
Severe trauma including head injury
Severe bleeding, or bleeding that doesn’t stop with pressure after about five minutes
- Loss of consciousness
Don’t go to either an urgent care center or a clinic for these conditions. They will send you to the ER or call 911 for you. If you are in doubt, err on the safe side and head to the nearest hospital.
Urgent care centers can handle a variety of situations that are not life threatening:
Animal bites
Broken bones
Coughs, sore throats, high fevers, and flu
Cuts that require stitches
Earaches and sinus pain
Eye problems
Minor burns
Minor headaches or breathing problems
Rashes and skin problems
- Vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach or belly pain
These centers can take X-rays and perform minor procedures, such as removing a foreign object from the eye or stitching a cut. Retail health clinics can also care for many of these situations. But they aren’t equipped to handle broken bones, X-rays or stitching cuts and other wounds. Think of a retail clinic as a doctor’s office that takes walk-ins and is open extended hours.
It’s true an ER can handle all the same things an urgent care center can. But you will spend significantly more time waiting and receiving treatment in an ER. ERs have a five-tier triage system to make sure the sickest patients get care immediately. The median wait time to see a doctor in a U.S. ER is about 30 minutes. And the less urgent your situation, the longer you’ll likely wait. The median treatment time is 90 minutes.
In contrast, most urgent care centers have patients in and out the door in 60 minutes or less. This includes wait time and treatment time.
Time isn’t the only thing you’ll save by choosing an urgent care center. The average cost of an ER visit is about $1,300 to $1,400. But many urgent care visits cost an average of $150.
If you have insurance, you’ll see a difference in your copay and other out-of-pocket expenses. Your copay at an urgent care center will likely be higher than seeing your doctor, but it’s likely to be a fraction of the copay for an ER visit. Insurance plans may have other restrictions for ER visits. You may need to meet a deductible or pay co-insurance. Know what your plan covers before an emergency happens.
The doctors and nurses who staff urgent care centers are dedicated medical providers. In fact, 97% of urgent care staff work full time at the center. And 70% of urgent care doctors are board certified in either family medicine or emergency medicine. An added benefit is these doctors are available to see you without an appointment. Most centers are open an average of 13 hours per day, seven days a week.
It’s a good idea to program the name and location of your preferred urgent care and hospital ER in your phone so you are prepared in case of emergency. You may also want to post the same information on your refrigerator or other common area of your house.
