When to Choose Urgent Care Over the Emergency Room

When you need medical attention fast, you have options. Your mind might jump immediately to the emergency room (ER), but that’s not your only choice. In many cases, you can get the treatment you need at urgent care. Often, that might be your best path, especially if you don’t want to be there all day.

Where should you go when you need prompt medical care? This month’s blog can help you decide. As our name suggests, SmartClinic Urgent Care specializes in urgent care at our offices in West Covina and Santa Clarita, California. 

Here, our team explores when you should visit our clinic and when you should go straight to the hospital. 

The ER: For life-threatening and severe situations

The name tells you a lot: The emergency room is for physical emergencies. You should go straight to the ER for things like:

• Broken bones
• Extreme difficulty breathing
• Loss of consciousness
• Signs of a heart attack
• Severe bleeding
• Sudden and severe pain

It’s also a good idea to go to the ER after a head injury, especially if you notice changes like dilated pupils or dizziness. That could mean there’s an issue with your brain. 

In short, if you think the situation could be life-threatening or you’re in an unmanageable amount of pain, visit the emergency department at your closest hospital. 

Urgent care: When you need treatment fast

The ER team performs triage to manage patient load. That means they sort patients based on how urgent their medical situation is. If you go to the ER when your issue isn’t time-sensitive, you’re sorted into a lower-priority category. That means you have to wait a while to get care.

In these cases, going to urgent care usually means you get treatment faster. 

You can visit our SmartClinic Urgent Care offices for things like:

• Abdominal pain 
• Abscesses
• Cuts when you can control the bleeding
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Earaches
• Sore throat
• Cold symptoms and flu symptoms
• Upper respiratory symptoms
• Urinary tract infections (UTIs)
• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
• Sprains, strains, and even some fractures

Once we help you find out what’s causing your symptoms, we can provide the appropriate treatment. 

The big question: Is it, or could it be, life-threatening?

If you have any concerns that the situation could risk your life, go to the ER. That includes your quality of life. If you think you have a severely broken bone, for example, going to the emergency room connects you to the broad variety of services you might need.

If your symptoms come on suddenly or are getting worse rapidly, it’s worth being concerned. Hospitals have a wide range of treatments immediately available. That means they can intervene in whatever way you need.

If your symptoms seem relatively stable and the situation doesn’t seem life-threatening, heading to urgent care can mean skipping a long wait and getting treatment faster. You can schedule an appointment at either of our offices or simply walk in for professional, compassionate care.