When to go to an ER
When you require immediate medical attention for life-threatening conditions, go to an emergency room.
Should I Go to Urgent Care or an Emergency Room?
Making a decision of where to go to get care is often difficult. Learn the difference between urgent care and emergency rooms and what kind of care each provide.
Knowing where to go
When to go to urgent care
When you have a minor injury that can't wait to be seen by your usual doctor, go to urgent care.
When to go to after-hours primary care
After-hours care provides general primary and specialty care during evenings and weekends.
When to go to an emergency room
If you have a life threatening injury, illness, or trauma, call 911. Reaction time is critical for seizures, strokes, and heart attacks.
Our emergency rooms are staffed 24/7 with physicians and health care professionals trained in delivering emergency care. The team has quick access to expert providers in advanced specialties. Emergency rooms also have the imaging and laboratory resources needed to diagnose and deliver care for severe and life-threatening situations.
Go to the emergency room if you are experiencing:
- Chest pain or pressure
- Compound fracture (bone that protrudes through the skin)
- Gun shot
- Head injuries, loss of consciousness, fainting, confusion or seizures
- High fever that will not break
- Loss of limb
- Mental health crisis
- Pneumonia
- Poisoning
- Seizures
- Severe abdominal pain
- Severe pain or injury
- Shortness of breath
- Stab wound
- Sudden change in vision
- Sudden, severe headache, or paralysis or weakness
- Trouble speaking
- Uncontrolled bleeding
- Vaginal bleeding during pregnancy
When to go to an urgent care clinic
Urgent care clinics have set hours and an established list of conditions treated. As a result, urgent care clinics often are less expensive and have shorter wait times than Emergency Rooms. Insurance copays are generally more expensive than going to your primary care provider.
Go to an urgent care clinic if you are experiencing:
- Back or muscle pain
- Bronchitis
- Cuts and minor burns
- Diarrhea
- Earache
- Flu shots or vaccines
- Fever, colds and flu
- Headaches and migraines
- Infection — like an ear, eye, throat or sinus infection — that may need antibiotics
- Sores and blisters
- Minor broken bones
- Dehydration
- Skin conditions
- Sore throats
- Sprains or joint pain
- Upper respiratory infection
- Urinary tract infections
- Worker's comp injuries
You can also have physicals and screenings done at urgent care clinics.
When to go to after-hours primary care
After-hours care provides general primary and specialty care during evenings and weekends.