Sometimes, in the course of daily life, even the most healthy and careful of Americans may sometimes fall ill, get an allergic reaction to food or their environment, or sustain a wound or injury, and it is important for any responsible adult or parent to know what type of medical facility to visit when someone is hurt or ill, and this knowledge can save a life. Why go to urgent care? A 24 hour walk in clinic or a walk in clinic can offer a wide variety of prescription drugs or treatment for ailments and illnesses, and the staff members of nurse practitioners and physicians will be ready for anything that does not require an emergency room visit. Meanwhile, if a person’s illness or injury is more serious and is life-threatening, then visiting the ER at a hospital is necessary to save a life, and 24 hour emergency care, as opposed to urgent care, will be needed for this. Citizens today are urged to know the difference between urgent and emergency care. Why visit the ER? Why go to urgent care?
Emergency care at the Hospital
For more serious and life-threatening medical conditions, it is vital for a patient to be brought to the emergency room, or the ER, where they can be stabilized and relieved of imminent danger. What are some reasons to go to the ER instead of an urgent care clinic? Major injuries like broken arms or legs, head wounds, eye wounds, abdominal pain cases, serious chest pain (which may indicate a heart attack), and serious difficulty breathing can all threaten a life and are reasons to visit the emergency room. Other trauma like bullet wounds or stab wounds will also necessitate a visit here, and the doctors and physicians on staff will have both the training and the equipment to deal with life-threatening ailments. However, it has been found that not all ER patients today even need to go; some of them, in fact, have conditions better treated at an urgent care center, and anywhere from 44% to 65% of all ER episodes could have been instead treated at an urgent care center. After all, a clinic is faster and more cost friendly to visit than the ER, and such a patient is taking up room that someone with a life-threatening condition will need. Emergency centers can be found with Internet searches like “24 hour emergency care near me” or “hospitals near me.”
Why Go to Urgent Care?
Urgent care is the milder cousin of emergency care, and it is more common for today’s people to visit these facilities for everyday wounds illnesses rather than the ER. Urgent care clinics are often independent facilities or are joined in small networks, and the staff members of nurse practitioners and physicians will have the training and equipment to deal with non life-threatening illness and wounds. Not all such clinics are open 24 hours a day or seven days a week, but many are, and a person searching for “24 hour urgent care near me” is bound to find the name and address of a nearby clinic when they need one, and get directions there.
Why go to urgent care? Everyday illness and wounds can call for a visit to the clinic. The common cold and flu viruses, for example, can be treated here with medicine, especially cases that are serious and are not going away soon enough. Allergies and food poisoning can also be treated here, as can rashes or other skin conditions. Milder injuries such as cuts that require stitches, or broken fingers or toes, may be treated at such a clinic, as can upper respiratory issues and bone fractures (four out of five clinics treat bone fractures). Dru prescriptions can also be prescribed or filled out at these clinics. These clinics are fast, and wait times of about 15 minutes can be expected, on average.
Some urgent care clinics are what is known as retail clinics, meaning that they are built into major retailers like Walgreens, Target, and Wal-Mart, making them convenient to find and get parking for, since these major retailers are designed for many shoppers to locate and get parking for. These facilities can often contain a pharmacy for filling drug prescriptions.
