What Is the Difference Between Urgent Care and an Emergency Room?
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Drive around the town of your local community, and chances are you’ll see several urgent care centers and emergency rooms with patients flowing in and out.
That’s because each year, there are about 140 million emergency room visits in the United States, according to a survey by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. An additional 200 million people visit urgent care centers each year, according to the trade group Urgent Care Association.
Emergency and urgent care medicine both serve an important purpose in health care, but what exactly does each facility do and how should you decide which one to use for medical problems? In this blog, we talk with Carl Raczkowski, M.D., a board-certified gastroenterologist at INTEGRIS Health Baptist Medical Center, to explain the difference between the two and give examples of common conditions each facility treats.
Urgent care vs. emergency room
Anywhere from 13 percent to 27 percent of emergency room visits could be avoided and instead treated by a primary care physician, retail clinic or urgent care center, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. This fact alone makes it important to understand the purpose of the emergency room versus an urgent care facility.
"Unnecessary trips to the emergency room can be avoidable if more people know when and what kind of care they need," Raczkowski says. "Plus, using urgent care centers to treat more minor illnesses and injuries can free up more bandwidth for emergency rooms to treat patients who may need more critical assistance."
Urgent care
Think of urgent care as a bridge, or the middle ground, between an emergency room and your typical primary care physician. In general, any illness or injury that isn’t emergent but needs treatment within 24 hours should be seen at an urgent care center.
Urgent care centers operate as walk-in clinics and are usually staffed by nurses, nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants. Thanks to advances in technology, urgent care facilities now offer the ability to plan your visit to reduce wait times. For example, INTEGRIS Health has a feature where you secure a spot in a virtual waiting line or even schedule a visit to an urgent care near you.
Some urgent cares may have physician oversight from a doctor who specializes in family medicine or emergency medicine. Urgent care centers with X-ray capabilities will also have a radiologist on staff.
Urgent care centers also offer more flexibility because they remain open after doctor’s offices close – hours typically range from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. all week.
This comes in handy for people who may be sick and can’t get in to see a doctor for several days. A quick trip to an urgent care center can provide you with an examination and a prescription for medications in 30 minutes or less due to our unique concierge model of care.
In addition to shorter wait times, urgent care centers are more affordable, especially for people who don’t have insurance coverage or are paying out of pocket due to high deductibles. Urgent cares have the ability to treat a wide range of medical conditions.
A majority of locations have X-ray machines to diagnose broken bones and other injuries, and they have laboratories to draw blood for basic testing such as complete blood count (CBC), urinalysis and antigen testing. Newer urgent care centers are even adding other imaging such as ultrasounds and echocardiograms.
Emergency room
An emergency room, or emergency department, is a facility that treats life-threatening conditions for people of all ages. Emergency rooms are open 24/7 and therefore are the best option when you need immediate attention for serious injuries or illnesses.
While emergency rooms are capable of treating all types of conditions, they aren’t meant for minor ailments – that’s what urgent care centers are for.
While an urgent care center is limited in both staff and the equipment available to treat medical conditions, hospital emergency rooms have expansive staff and the technology to perform surgeries and treat traumatic injuries. Some emergency rooms in metropolitan areas are also home to trauma centers that can treat critical or life-threatening injuries such as gunshot wounds.
ERs are led by emergency room doctors who specialize in emergency medicine. Physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses and medical assistants also provide care to patients.
Most hospitals also have specialists on staff to treat specific conditions. For example, an interventional cardiologist can treat a blocked artery that causes a heart attack, or a trauma surgeon can treat internal injuries from a car accident.
In the emergency room setting, the severity of the injury or illness determines how fast you’re seen. In other words, a heart attack takes precedence over a broken foot. ERs can become overcrowded, especially at night, which can lead to long patient wait times.
When to go to the ER vs. urgent care?
The first question should always be the reason for your visit. Ask yourself if the ailment is life threatening. If the answer is yes, then head to an emergency room. If the answer is no, an urgent care center is the more suitable choice.
But what exactly is an emergency? In general, this includes anything that would permanently damage or endanger your life – difficulty breathing, losing consciousness or unresponsive behavior, to name a few.
For non-urgent matters, call your primary care physician’s office for further evaluation. For more timely matters that can’t wait, or if your doctor is unavailable, you can visit an urgent care.
Time is another determining factor in choosing an emergency room versus an urgent care. Since most urgent cares have specific hours that close around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., sometimes an ER visit is the only option.
What does urgent care treat?
- Back or muscle pain
- Broken bones (minor casting)
- Bronchitis
- Colds
- Conjunctivitis (pink eye)
- Diarrhea
- Ear infection
- Fever
- Flu
- Injury from falls
- Minor burns
- Mononucleosis
- Puncture wounds and lacerations that require stitches
- Skin conditions
- Sprains, strains and dislocations
- Strep/sore throat
- Urinary tract infections
- Upper respiratory infection
- Vomiting
- Yeast infections
What does an ER treat?
- Chest pain or pressure (heart attack)
- Compound fracture (bone that protrudes through the skin)
- Deep cuts and lacerations
- Difficulty breathing/shortness of breath
- Head injuries
- Inability to move/sudden paralysis
- Injury from car accidents
- Loss of consciousness
- Loss of vision
- Moderate to severe burns
- Pneumonia
- Seizures
- Severe abdominal pain
- Severe allergic reactions
- Signs of a stroke (slurred speech, numbness/weakness, loss of balance)
- Spinal cord injury
- Uncontrolled bleeding
- Vomiting or coughing blood
This is not an exhaustive list of the common medical conditions treated at urgent care centers and emergency rooms. When in doubt, call 911 or visit an emergency room near you.
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