Posted by on Oct 20, 2018 in Advance Urgent Care, Health | No Comments

An urgent care clinic near Pasadena can help you with a wide variety of medical needs and services… but a clinic can’t handle every type of medical emergency.  Sometimes, you still need to visit a hospital Emergency Room (ER), particularly if the medical emergency is genuinely life-threatening.

It’s important to know whether you should visit an ER or your local urgent care clinic, so here are some guidelines.

When You Should Visit An ER 

The time to visit an ER is when the problem is life-threatening, or likely to become life-threatening without immediate action.

This would include ailments such as strokes or heart attacks, which require immediate intervention.  Urgent care clinics lack any sort of surgical suites, so anything that requires an operation must be handled at an actual hospital.  This also goes for deep lacerations (cuts down to the bone) and compound bone fractures where the bone is sticking out of the skin.

Also, most serious head injuries should be handled by an ER, such as blows to the head which result in unconsciousness.  You’ll need a brain scan to look for damage.  The ER is also better for situations where a patient is having a hard time remaining conscious, is unable to speak, or otherwise showing signs of brain damage.

For Everything Else, Visit Your Local Pasadena Urgent Care Clinic

If the problem isn’t life threatening, chances are your local urgent care clinic can handle    it both faster and more cheaply than a hospital.  This includes a wide range of “every day” medical issues such as:

  • Cold and flu care
  • Shallow cuts
  • Cleanly broken bones
  • Bloody noses
  • Sports injuries such as a twisted ankle
  • Minor burns
  • Most ear/nose/throat infections

However, that’s not all that a Pasadena urgent care clinic can do.  They are also excellent for non-emergency services, such as receiving simple checkups or physical examinations.  They can also help you with the management of ongoing diseases, such as diabetes, thyroid conditions, and most STDs.

An urgent care clinic will also usually have a full pharmacy on site, and the doctors have prescription-writing privileges.  So, if you need a prescription refilled, you can do so quickly and cheaply at an urgent care clinic.

Advanced Urgent Care of Pasadena Wants to Help

From everyday care to minor emergencies, Advanced Urgent Care provides rapid and affordable medical services.  Contact us for an appointment, or just come visit!

 

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