Should I Go to the Emergency Room or Urgent Care?

When an unexpected medical problem arises, do you seek treatment at an emergency room or an urgent care clinic? A Keck Medicine of USC expert helps you decide.

We’ve all been there: Maybe it’s an earache that worsens over the weekend, or an ankle that hasn’t been the same since that fall on a trail run.

Whatever it is, we know something’s wrong, but we don’t know how wrong, and we don’t know if we can wait for an appointment with our primary care physician before doing something about it.

So: Do we take it to the emergency room or an urgent care clinic?

What do emergency rooms do best?

As a nurse practitioner for the emergency department at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, part of Keck Medicine of USC, Sona Yesayan, NP-BC, helps patients answer this question all the time — and the key, she believes, involves understanding which purpose each care option is designed to serve.

In the case of the emergency department, she says, everything on offer — from advanced medical equipment to a staff of specialists, registered nurses, technicians and more — is there to treat life-threatening emergencies that need immediate care.

Serious auto accidents, uncontrolled bleeding, symptoms of cardiac arrest: Those are all jobs for the emergency department.

What is urgent care?

Urgent care, by contrast, is purpose built to address acute but not life-threatening conditions.

That means that an urgent care clinic will have some of the same equipment as an emergency room, as well as a staff of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, X-ray technicians and licensed vocational nurses.

With all of that at the ready, Yesayan says, there’s a lot that urgent care clinics can do, including:

• Take X-rays
• Splint minor fractures
• Treat sprains and strains
• Administer medication and intravenous fluids
• Repair lacerations
• Treat first- and second-degree burns
• Diagnose pneumonia
• Address nausea, vomiting and diarrhea
• Perform bloodwork and lab services
• Treat minor wounds and animal bites
• Manage exacerbations of chronic issues, like allergies or asthma, that require simple treatment

“Urgent care centers fill the gap between primary care and the emergency room,” Yesayan says. And with hours more flexible than those of the typical doctor’s office — often including evenings, weekends and some holidays — urgent care centers can be a failsafe for anyone who can’t take time off work for an appointment or can’t stomach a long wait to schedule one.

When to go to urgent care vs. emergency room

Still, you might not know whether your medical concern is urgent, or downright emergent — especially if you’re frightened or in pain.

And here, Yesayan offers some clarifying considerations.

“There are definitely very black-and-white issues where it’s clear where to go,” she says. “If you woke up with a cold and just want advice and assessment, go to urgent care. You sprained your finger and aren’t sure if it’s broken? Go to urgent care.”

But if you’re experiencing symptoms of a heart attack or stroke or head injury, a chemical burn, unexplained loss of consciousness or something else extreme, “Those are things most people should get evaluated in the emergency room,” Yesayan counsels, adding that conditions occurring in the very young, very old and immunocompromised also deserve emergency attention.

If you’re still unsure, Yesayan suggests messaging your primary care physician — if you have an established relationship with one — with questions about your condition. Having worked as a primary care nurse practitioner for seven years, she understands how valuable a resource the office’s staff can be.

“And if you’re really in that gray area and don’t know which way to go,” she concludes, “it’s okay to go to the emergency room.”

Emergency rooms: What to know

Just keep some caveats in mind.

For one, while an emergency department will give you the best care it can, Yesayan says it may not be the best care for your condition.

“We have a purpose in the emergency department and it’s to rule out emergencies and emergent conditions,” she says. So, if what brought you there doesn’t pose a life-threatening problem now or in the near future, “We can offer counseling on the findings, potential nonemergent diagnoses and advice to follow up with your primary care provider and get the appropriate referrals. We may not always alleviate all concerns or provide exact diagnoses, but we do our best to counsel and provide resources,” she continues.

Is urgent care cheaper than the emergency room?

Emergency departments, which draw upon considerable human and physical resources, can also be costlier than urgent care — though how costly is “a tricky question to answer,” Yesayan notes.

While both options won’t refuse care based on a patient’s ability to pay, urgent care centers will collect a fee or copayment at the time of service. Patients at the emergency department, however, are seen regardless of their insurance or ability to pay.

Emergency room wait times

Emergency rooms also often pose longer waits. “There may not be enough beds or nurses to bring in more patients,” Yesayan explains. “Or there may be ambulances coming through the back with life-threatening illnesses. Staff might also be tending to patients who are very ill, requiring resuscitation.”

What’s more, she adds, “The strain that true non-emergencies puts on ERs increases the likelihood of truly sick patients waiting longer to be seen as we try to manage the large influx of people waiting.”

When you need care, seek it

That said, the last thing Yesayan wants is for a patient to delay care because they’re afraid of burdening the emergency department or an urgent care clinic.

“If you felt in your gut that this was the place to go and now you’re being told you’re fine and can go home, it’s okay!” she says. “The staff isn’t grumbling about why you’re there.”

After all, they’re there to help. As Yesayan recalls, “A patient once told me, ‘Sometimes I just want someone in scrubs to put that little metal stethoscope on my chest and tell me, ‘You’re okay.’ So, we’re doing a lot of counseling and educating the community. But that’s fine. We love it. We all choose to be here and chose emergency medicine for our life’s work.”

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