Learn the difference: Urgent Care vs ER

Emergency rooms are used for life threatening injuries or conditions.  Emergency rooms are also equipped to handle major illness or injury, such as a heart attack, chest pains, stroke symptoms, poisoning, major trauma, and severe or uncontrolled bleeding.If you’re experiencing a life-threatening emergency or think you need an ambulance, you should visit the closest ER.

Urgent care clinics specialize in and are equipped to treat minor medical emergencies. Visiting an urgent care is appropriate when a condition requires prompt attention but is not life-threatening, such as:

• Cold, flu and fevers
• Minor traumas (e.g. strains, sprains, fractures)
• Nausea and vomiting
• Ear and sinus infections
• Minor lacerations, wounds and burns

Without a doubt urgent care clinics are cheaper than an ER, regardless of being a freestanding or hospital based ER.  An emergency room is typically associated with a hospital.  Emergency rooms account for a variety of charges in the patient’s bill – costs for tests/treatments, facility charges, physician fees’, charges for x-rays and other diagnostic images, and charges for physician specialists.

According to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, on average the in-network cost for an individual with private health insurance was $933 for an ER visit in 2011.

For minor emergencies, visiting an urgent care will provide you cost effective and prompt patient care.