What’s the Difference between Urgent Care and Emergency Room?

Urgent care clinics are known to have a much larger range of services than other clinics like family doctors or even emergency rooms. However, they are not equivalent to emergency departments. Urgent care clinics are available to help conserve emergency room resources so that more serious and even life-threatening conditions can be treated at an emergency room.

The main difference between going to an urgent care and emergency care filters down to what constitutes a medical emergency. Urgent care clinics are available as a form of quick and convenient medical care that focuses on any conditions that may not be potentially life-threatening or limb-threatening emergencies but still require urgent service and care within 24 hours or less.

Some of these medical care services that urgent cares offer treatment for are:

• Bruises, bumps, strains and broken bones
• Insect bites
• Animal bites
• Viruses (like COVID-19)
• Cold and Flu
• Asthma
• Eye Injuries
• Earaches and Infections
• Respiratory Infections
• Vomiting and Diarrhea

Plus, many more! Dr. Shima Hadidchi MD Family Practice also offers services like:

• Medical Weight Loss
• DOT Physicals
• Lab Testing
• Digital X-rays

The difference between urgent care clinics and emergency care centers is how extreme the health problem may be. If the condition is life-threatening or limb-threatening, this would render a visit to the emergency room/hospital. If the condition is a minor illness or injury, take advantage of the ultimate convenience that an urgent care clinic can provide and the affordability that urgent care clinics offer. Dr. Shima Hadidchi MD Family Practice offers affordability and convenience with quality medical care.

Urgent care facilities are available to visit all over the United States as they become more popular for their quick and affordable medical care. Urgent care provides a combination of benefits that your primary care doctor and emergency room centers cannot match.

Some of the top benefits that urgent care offers are:

• Offer better hours than the average doctor’s office. It can be difficult to get to see your family doctor, sometimes it could take over a week to get booked for an appointment with them when you can visit an urgent care facility that offers almost immediate care.

• Urgent care saves you money vs. going to an emergency room for minor injuries and illnesses. Urgent care is known to be significantly cheaper than going to an emergency room, it could also be cheaper than visiting your primary care doctor.

• Urgent care provides quicker service than an ER can and may even be faster than your family doctor’s office. Visiting an emergency room can offer a wait time that could lead to several hours of waiting to be seen, while urgent care offers walk-in service and can usually get you in within minutes of arriving, depending on how busy they are.

• Many urgent care facilities offer walk-in services with no appointments necessary. Waiting for an appointment to see your family doctor when you are not feeling well can become frustrating and even uncomfortable. However, you can go to urgent care whenever you need to get experienced medical care.

• Urgent care also treats serious problems, depending on the severity of the problem. If you have a life or limb-threatening emergency, the emergency room will be the place to visit for help. Anything minor, even stitches can be helped through an urgent care clinic.

If you or someone you know is showing signs of needing to visit an urgent care, visit Dr. Shima Hadidchi MD Family Practice today. We serve patients from Victorville CA, Apple Valley CA, Adelanto CA, Hesperia CA, Crestline CA, Highland CA, Barstow CA, and BEYOND!