Urgent care centers and emergency rooms are not one and the same. While they can both diagnose and treat patients who are sick or injured, these two facilities serve different purposes. They also differ in terms of their wait times, the conditions they treat, whether or not they are legally obligated to treat patients, and how much they cost.
Read on to explore the differences between an urgent care facility and an emergency room to decide which one might be applicable for you.
- Purpose
An emergency room is designed to help patients with immediate, serious, or possibly dangerous health conditions. The purpose of urgent care centers is to provide prompt care for conditions or illnesses that are less risky but best seen the same day, rather than waiting for an appointment with a primary doctor weeks or months away.
- Conditions They Treat
Urgent care facilities treat less serious conditions like colds, flus, ear infections, bronchitis, sprains, and mild allergic reactions.
Emergency rooms deal with a wider range of conditions, usually ones that are more significant. These include broken bones, severe bleeding, chest pain, pregnancy-related issues, unconsciousness, drug overdoses or toxicity, low or high blood sugar levels, seizures, and distressed breathing.
As a general rule, if the condition is serious or life-threatening, skip urgent care and go straight to the emergency room. If it isn’t life-threatening, consider going to urgent care – or setting up an appointment with your primary doctor, depending on how urgent the need to be seen is.
- Wait Times
How long you may have to wait to see a doctor can vary drastically between the two facilities.
Most urgent care OKC facilities welcome walk-ins but also allow appointments to be set up in advance. Because urgent care centers are designed to get people in and out for simple, non-threatening conditions, the wait time tends to be less, usually minutes.
Emergency rooms, on the other hand, don’t allow appointments. Instead, they work on a first-come, first-served basis – with the exception of a life-threatening emergency, which may delay other patients’ care. Due to the critical, more thorough care that they provide, wait times can be hours unless the emergency necessitates immediate intervention.
- Obligation to Treat Patients
Urgent care centers, as private businesses, are not legally obligated to treat patients that come in. Whether it be due to payment issues, obscene behavior, a shortage of staff on duty, or believing your condition doesn’t necessitate medical care – or is best if seen by an emergency room, a specialist, or your primary care doctor – they can refuse you service.
Emergency rooms, on the other hand, must take you in according to US law. This is true regardless of whether or not you can pay and your current citizenship status.
- Cost
Emergency rooms cost significantly more than urgent care facilities. This is because of the level of care they provide and the higher level of services they can give when compared to urgent care centers.
In terms of insurance coverage, emergency rooms often accept more plans, even ones that may be considered out of network. Private urgent care centers may accept fewer insurance options.
Conclusion
It’s evident that urgent care centers and emergency rooms are quite different. Urgent care is a more readily available, faster, and more affordable option. However, they aren’t legally obligated to treat all patients, and there are many conditions they aren’t able to treat. However, they’re great in a pinch. For those needing more extensive care, an emergency room is the way to go.