The Differences between Emergency Rooms and Urgent Care Centers

In recent years, there has been a lot of growth in the number of urgent care centers available to people. Because of this, many people now view emergency rooms and urgent care centers as being synonymous. This, however, is completely untrue as emergency rooms and urgent care centers are really quite different.

An urgent care center is usually freestanding and or a privately funded facility that offers many of the same services as an emergency room. Emergency rooms, however, are a wing of a larger, full-service hospital. While an urgent care center may have the ability to treat broken bones and other non-life threatening conditions, it frequently is unable to treat life threatening conditions like a heart attack.

Another difference between the two centers involves the operation hours. Any emergency room that is connected with a federally-funded hospital is required by law to provide 24-hour emergency care. Urgent care centers, because they are frequently privately funded, can set their own hours of operation. It is not uncommon for these centers to close at 11 p.m. and re-open at 7 a.m.

The goal of an urgent care facility is to provide immediate medical attention in the event that a patient’s primary care physician is unavailable. This is not the same for an emergency room.

Emergency rooms, because they are covered and partially funded by federal law, are required to treat any person that comes to their door seeking help, regardless of their ability to pay. This, in many instances, leads to insured patients that visit an emergency room being hit with exorbitant fees such as $100 aspirin or $200 bandages.

Urgent care facilities, on the other hand, can refuse to treat uninsured patients or those who have a proven inability to pay. While this may sound awful, it keeps the overhead costs at a lower level than those seen at emergency room. This frequently leads to insured patients not being charged ridiculous amounts for common medical items.

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