Not everyone has had experience with urgent or prompt care services, some residents are not even sure if they exist in their location. For those who have never been to one, you might wonder how they work, and often what you have not experience may give you the wrong impression about them. For instance, a lack of knowledge about prompt care centers may lead you to believe they don’t have much quality of care.

For anyone who needs care for any minor injuries or medical emergencies would fear the bill for urgent or prompt services. Even those who are looking for places to go to for lab tests or vaccinations can attend these facilities. These are some of the most convenient and widely accessible places for anyone, and any age.

So, before you head on to your local hospital’s ER room. Take a minute to consider your other option – prompt or urgent care, to find out more click here. Below we have included a few pointers we think will benefit you. Keep reading to find out more.

Let’s begin with clearing out one common confusion, which is that prompt care and emergency rooms are the same. The simple answer to that is NO. We look at a few differences between the two.

Difference Between Prompt Care and Emergency Rooms

Imagine you are ill and it’s after-hours close to midnight and your feeling restless, and it’s close to 6 pm. You try everything and you can’t get better, you are spiking a fever and you get the sweats.

There’s no one around and it’s only you in your apartment, your body aches and you start shivering. It is now 6:30 pm and you think to yourself, maybe your doctor is still at the practice, you call his phone, no answer, you try again and still no answer. You start to panic.

Now you think to yourself, what are your other options? You have two. Either you go to an emergency room or you go to the urgent care center (prompt care). How do you know which one is right for you, ER, or urgent care?

Many patients are faced with this type of decision daily and most of them are not aware of what services are offered at each one or how different they are from one another.

In simple terms, the emergency rooms typically help those with life-threatening illnesses while prompt care helps those who need immediate, less serious care, and are usually more affordable. This website can tell you more about the other factors: https://www.verywellhealth.com/urgent-care-vs-emergency-room-4148482 pe

We take a closer look at the two with some few pointers:

Center Distribution. There are 9000 urgent care centers in the US just in 2012 and 40% of them aim to expand their existing locations or add other locations within the next 12 months.

There are only 4461 emergency rooms in the US and 50% of the urban hospitals were at capacity or over capacity in 2012.

Visiting Charges. Visiting urgent care on average will cost you $180.55. while visiting an emergency room on average will cost you $969.00 back in 2010.

Use of Rooms. If the influx of those who don’t need an emergency room, were to be moved to a prompt clinic, they would save on average $ 4.4 billion in annual savings, which could be put to good use.

Duration of Visiting. In places such as the prompt care center in Evans, GA, over 85% of urgent care patients are tended to within the first hour or less in urgent care or prompt care centers. Only just over 12% of patients are looked at in emergency rooms within an hour or less.

Looks like prompt care services are growing more popular due to their affordability, low wait times for appointments, and ease of access. It is mainly due to them meeting most people’s demands that are growing strong, and very seldom would you find them reaching or exceeding capacity like the ER rooms in hospitals do.

We hope the information above clearly shows you which option to go for when looking for emergency services but not necessarily need the ER to bring you some relief in the evenings when your doctor is not at his or her practice.