Should You Go to An Urgent Care Clinic or Emergency Room?

Skilled medical researcher and practitioner, Samuel Bride, M.D. has been working in the medical field for more than 20 years. A former research assistant at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Children’s Hospital Boston, Dr. Samuel “Sam” Bride serves as the medical director of UMD Urgent Care in Long Island City and as an attending physician at UMD Williamsburg in New York, NY, US.

As urgent care centers become more popular in the United States, many individuals are faced with choosing between visiting an emergency room or urgent care center when an unexpected medical issue comes up. In many cases, patients must consider if their injury or illness is something that they would be comfortable seeing their primary care physician. If so, then a visit to urgent care is more appropriate.

Urgent care centers are well-equipped for handling a range of minor medical needs that are not life-threatening. These include fevers and colds, minor cuts, pain with urination, dehydration, and mild asthma attacks. Simple bone breaks and some animal bites are also handled by urgent care clinics. These facilities serve as a fill-in for a person’s regular doctor, so many of their available services are the same as what patients would receive at their primary care physician’s office.

For truly life-threatening, emergency medical needs, patients must visit an emergency room. Ideally, the sorts of medical conditions handled by an ER are ones that require either advanced or quick treatments to ensure patients stay safe. Head injuries are one valid reason for visiting the ER, as is chest pain, slurred speech, or concussion.