Sometimes, health issues occur suddenly and when you least expect them. In these situations, get prompt assistance from a medical clinic that can diagnose and treat the condition. However, it can be difficult to know where to go — when you need immediate help, is it better to visit an urgent care center or hospital emergency room? Both facilities offer important healthcare resources, but each is designed to address different scenarios. Here’s a brief comparison to help you decide.

Emergency Rooms vs. Urgent Care Centers

Issues Addressed

If you’re facing a life-threatening health crisis, call 911 immediately to have an ambulance take you to a hospital’s emergency room. These facilities are staffed with surgeons, doctors, and nurses who are trained to handle severe cases like heart attack, stroke, poisoning, internal bleeding, and traumatic injury.

Issues that require responsive treatment but aren’t life-threatening are better addressed by urgent care facilities. For example, they can set broken bones, wrap sprains, prescribe treatment for strep throat, perform sports physicals, and administer flu vaccines. Urgent care centers require no appointments, are often open after-hours, and can provide standard health services more conveniently than a general physician.

Time Spent

Emergency rooms provide care based on priority — a process called triage. Those with life-threatening conditions can expect to receive prompt treatment. However, if you go to a hospital with a less-serious health problem — such as a sore throat or broken finger — you may have to wait several hours before a doctor sees you.

Urgent care centers take patients on a walk-in basis and do not require appointments. Given the scope of specific issues they address, these medical clinics typically have the staff and resources necessary to provide personalized assistance in a much timelier fashion than emergency rooms.

Cost

Emergency room visits tend to be more expensive than urgent care or general doctor’s appointments — especially if you take an ambulance. Urgent care centers, on the other hand, are designed to provide health services at a more standard rate and typically accept many forms of insurance to help reduce your costs.

When you need fast and convenient non-emergency medical attention in Butler County, OH, turn to the trusted staff at Monroe Urgent Care. Open seven days a week, this walk-in clinic makes it easy to get the treatment you need — typically in 30 minutes or less. While equipped to provide swift urgent care for medical concerns, this team is also available to provide other general health services, such as sports physicals and flu vaccines, at affordable rates. To learn more about their capabilities, visit the center online or call a friendly staff member at (513) 461-2273.