If you’ve broken a body part like an arm or a leg, have a wound that won’t stop bleeding or you’re dealing with unbearable pain, there’s no doubt that you need emergency room care. Such scenarios can be uncomfortable and downright scary depending on how severe the situation is.
If you’re dealing with a severe and immediate medical issue, heading to the emergency room or emergency room care is a sensible option, but it’s also important to stop for a few seconds. Take that time to assess the situation and really think about what you’re dealing with.
If you’re wondering what constitutes a visit for a emergency room care, consider these situations:
- Bleeding that you’re not able to stop
- Chest pains
- Intense, localized abdominal pain
- Bloody urine or bloody diarrhea
- Feelings of fainting or dizziness
- Feelings of sudden numbness or weakness
- Any sort of breathing difficulty such as wheezing or shortness of breath
- A severe headache which can’t be relieved with over-the-counter aspirin
- Coughing or vomiting blood
- Confusion or any severe changes in your mental status
If you find that any of those apply, seek out emergency room care as quick as possible. The last thing you want to do is roll the dice on your health and ignore a lingering medical issue. Lingering medical issues are often gateways to more severe medical issues and you don’t want to come down with something or something develop before it’s too late to act. If something’s not right, go with your gut and visit a hospital.
The scenarios and situations described above are just a few of the instances that could necessitate an emergency room visit. Remember to be careful if you’re going to self-diagnose. Even if you think you know your body pretty well, the last thing you want is to be completely off and end up in even more pain or discomfort. Conversely, you don’t want to overthink things and wind up having a long wait in the emergency room (not to mention a big bill) for an easily treated problem.
You may be wondering just what the heck you’re supposed to do for issues that aren’t severe, but require medical attention. An easy solution is to visit an urgent care.
Urgent cares are walk-in clinics that are visited by three million people a week and can treat just about anything that isn’t life-threatening. As of now, your average local urgent care facility offers treatments for sexually transmitted diseases, coughs, sprains, strains, sports injuries, dizziness, back pain, ear infections and many other common aliments.
Bottom line: urgent care facilities can treat a wide variety of medical issues, people can get in and get out for treatments since they are walk-in clinics and they’re wind up paying much less for medical treatments than they would if they sought emergency room care.
As if the benefits above weren’t enough of a positive, most urgent care facilities are open later and you’ll get in to see a doctor much faster. At your average urgent care, you’ll have a wait time of 15 minutes at the most. In terms of hours, most urgent cares are open until at least 7 p.m. during the work week and some are even open until 9 p.m. or later. Many are also open on the weekends, so you can a place that’s open. This makes it more convenient to get medical care when it works for you rather than having to rush over after work or spend your lunch hour in a doctor’s office.
When it comes to life-threatening medical issues and aliments, don’t hesitate to visit the emergency room right away, especially if you’re in unbearable pain or you’ve got a laceration. Emergency room doctors provide important services when it comes to medical care and if you’re suffering, you need to get to the ER right away, regardless of the time or the cost.
But when it comes to non life-threatening injuries, urgent care facilities are the places to go. You’ll get treated for common, everyday aliments, get in and out and get back to your normal routine a lot faster.
