The Difference Between Emergency Room and Urgent Care - Legacy ER

During a medical situation, it can be difficult to know where to go to get the proper treatment. With 24-hour urgent care locations all over the Plano, TX area, determining what illness or ailment should be treated at urgent care versus an emergency room can be tricky.
According to a recent study, 44 to 65% of all emergency room visits could have instead been treated at an urgent care facility. While these statistics prove that more people need to think about the difference between these two facilities, there are definitely appropriate times to seek out treatment at the nearest ER.

Many people associate emergency rooms with long wait times and more expensive visits, so they choose to go to a 24-hour urgent care location where they can find a convenient quality and cost. But still, it’s important to pay attention to the urgency of the medical situation at hand.

For example, a prolonged fever of 100-101 might constitute a visit to urgent care, but once the fever reaches 103, it’s time to go to the emergency room. While abdominal pains may be fully treatable at an urgent care facility, chest pains should be treated at an emergency room.

A 2016 report from the Urgent Care Association of America revealed the illnesses most commonly treated at urgent care centers. These included acute sinusitis, acute bronchitis, acute pharyngitis, cough, and acute respiratory infection.

A simple flu treatment can definitely be treated at an urgent care clinic, but severe health problems that are a cause of great concern, such as shortness of breath, should skip the urgent care and go straight to the ER.

Lucky for you, Legacy ER provides both an urgent and an emergency care clinic, which we like to call convenient care. Here, you don’t have to choose between two places in a medical situation since we have the resources and care for all medical needs, whether it’s a fever or chest pain. Our unique hybrid model helps you get to us faster instead of spending time choosing which facility to go to.

We’ve got you covered no matter what your medical situation is. For more information on our healthcare services, feel free to call us today.