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Knowing whether to visit urgent care vs the emergency room can save time, money, and potentially lives.
Urgent care is best for non-life-threatening conditions like minor injuries, fevers, and infections, with shorter wait times and lower costs than ER visits. Urgent Care clinics are open evenings, weekends, and holidays when regular doctors' offices are closed.
Emergency rooms provide immediate care for life-threatening issues like broken bones, sudden vision loss, and cardiac arrest, among other critical medical situations, with access to specialists at all hours.
If your condition isn’t critical but you need prompt attention, Portland Urgent Care offers fast, affordable care.
When your primary care doctor isn’t available or you need treatment quickly, urgent care facilities can bridge the gap.
Urgent care centers handle a wide range of medical issues that need prompt attention but aren't emergencies, including:
Urgent care clinics offer many on-site diagnostic and treatment services that allow patients to receive comprehensive care in one visit, including:
Diagnostic Services:
Treatment Options:
Many urgent care centers also provide flu shots and sports physicals.
Some of the benefits of urgent care vs emergency room care include:
Convenience: Appointments at urgent care are unnecessary, and most are open evenings, weekends, and holidays when primary care offices aren’t.
Cost Savings: Urgent care costs much less than emergency room visits.
Shorter Wait Times: Wait times at urgent care centers are shorter compared to emergency rooms.
Efficiency: Many urgent care visits are completed within an hour.
Emergency rooms operate 24/7 and can handle life-threatening, serious medical emergencies that need immediate medical attention, including:
Delaying medical attention for these conditions could result in permanent damage or death.
Resources the ER has but urgent care centers typically don't offer: include board-certified emergency physicians and medical teams that are available all hours, and advanced imaging technology like CT scanners and MRI machines.
When you arrive at an ER, your condition will be assessed through the triage process, which determines how quickly you need care. The typical ER visit involves:
Deciding between urgent care or the emergency room depends on how quickly you need care.
Go to the Emergency Room for:
Visit Urgent Care for:
Urgent care centers operate on a first-come, first-served basis, with extended hours,and wait times between 15-45 minutes. At 24/7 emergency rooms, the most serious patients are treated first and you may wait several hours if your condition isn’t critical.
Most insurance plans cover both urgent care and emergency room visits, but urgent care has lower copays, ranging from $25 to $75, compared to $100 to $300 for ER visits. Insurance providers sometimes deny coverage for ER visits if they consider the condition a nonemergency.
Check your policy before getting treated. Urgent Care centers often display their prices online, offer payment plans, and are a more cost-effective option for non-critical medical needs.
Understanding the difference between urgent care and the emergency room doesn't have to be confusing.
For most non-life-threatening injuries, illnesses, and sudden symptoms, Portland Urgent Care is your fast, affordable, and effective solution without the long ER wait or high cost. If you have a life-threatening condition, go directly to the emergency room.
Our professional Portland Urgent Care medical team is ready to assess your condition and offer treatment when you need it. Skip the stress and get the help you need; walk into Portland Urgent Care or schedule an appointment for quick, expert care.
