Did you realize that there is a difference between an urgent care and the emergency room? If not, then you are like so many others who fall victim to the very same misconception. Contrary to popular belief, these two outlets for quick, emergency medical care could not be any more different from one another. The emergency room is usually overcrowded with patients and packed with doctors and nurses looking forward to the end of an incredibly long workday. Urgent care, on the other hand, is an outlet compromised of doctors and nurses who typically only see their own patients at their own privately owned establishments. Although there are some instances where you may have no choice but to visit an emergency room, you should know that the majority of your spontaneous medical needs can be handled by the professionals at your local urgent care.
When should you go to urgent care with a child? Here are some examples of when you can save yourself the trouble having to wait long hours in the ER. Here are a couple of reasons of what to go to urgent care for
Better For Little Ones
Nearby pediatric urgent care can be one of the best things for a parent. When your child has to miss school because he or she isn’t feeling so great but they are not running a high fever or in dire need of an emergency room, the staff at your local urgent care will be able to get to the root of the problem and figure out just what to do to have your child feeling healthy and ready for school again in no time. With on-call doctors who specialize in pediatrics, the urgent care will become your one stop destination when you need someone to prescribe the medication that will help your little ones get back to tip top shape.
Many new parents find themselves calling their pediatrician for even the smallest of issues. What happens when the pediatrician is unavailable? What else is urgent care for if not to be your friendly neighborhood pediatric destination? For starters, it can be an easy way to get ahold of a doctor without the hassle of making appointments and rushing children off to large waiting rooms full of sick kids. The emergency services provided by an urgent care center are the very same services that your pediatrician can provide. Seeing how easily children get sick, most children will encounter their first ear infection before they are even three years of age. Your nearby urgent care can prescribe the right medications to treat this, reassuring parents that these smaller offices know how to handle patients of any size, young or young at heart.
Are you still unsure about what exactly what to go to urgent care for and what would, alternatively, need immediate emergency room attention?
Obviously an emergency room should be your destination if you were dealing with any potential life-threatening issue, but if your child were to slip and fall and sprain a bone an urgent care center would be able to provide the necessary service to mend the injured bones and get them immediately on the right track to healing.
Urgent care offers a multitude of services, so next time you’re wondering what to go to urgent care for, remember that they provide almost all of the same services as an emergency room but without the hassle of the standard hectic ER waiting room. For patients of all ages, urgent care can provide great and necessary service for any of those non-life threatening needs.