Urgent Care or the ER?

Illness and injuries can occur at some of the most inconvenient times. Your child may develop a fever just after the pediatrician closes, or perhaps you cut your finger preparing dinner or someone in the family is injured playing their favorite sport.

While you may know when to see your primary care provider (PCP), it may be harder to figure out whether night and weekend health incidents warrant a trip to the emergency room or if it's a condition that can be handled at an urgent care center. The debate might be even harder when you're sick or worried about a member of your family.

If you're not sure, listen to your body and consider how severe your symptoms are. If your instinct is to head to the ER, follow that feeling—it's better to be safe than sorry. There are 145 million ER visits annually, and 43% of hospital admissions start in the ER.

Remember that emergency rooms are for just that—life-threatening, alarming situations. Some injuries, ailments and symptoms that warrant a trip to the ER include trouble breathing, a fever that won't break, chest pain, severe allergic reactions, head trauma, unconsciousness, uncontrollable bleeding, poisoning, severe abdominal pain, overdoses and electric shock.

Pregnant women also should seek emergency assistance if they experience vaginal bleeding or abdominal pain. If you or someone you love has a seizure, especially when it's the first seizure, that constitutes an emergency, too. While there are other emergencies, another common cause for visits are compound breaks, when the bone protrudes from the skin.

Urgent care, however, provides services you might see a PCP for, but it often has some of the same equipment as ERs, too. For example, if you have a minor bone break or sprain, many urgent care centers have diagnostic imaging capabilities, such as X-rays. Urgent care also can help you treat fevers, colds, painful urination, back pain, headaches, a sore throat, minor burns, rashes, ear or sinus pain and cuts—including stitches, if needed.

In a non-emergent situation, urgent care might also ease the strain on your watch. According to one study, median wait times in ERs ranged from 104 minutes to 228 minutes across the nation. However, another study found that 90% of urgent care patients saw a provider within 30 minutes. Nearly as many patients were in and out within an hour.

Urgent care might also be easier on your wallet. Debt organizations report that $18 billion could be saved in America annually by going to urgent care instead of the ER for non-emergency needs.

And sure—in the moment, it can be hard to remember which place you should go to for care. However, we hope this makes your decision a little easier.