Emergency Care Questions and Answers

If your illness or injury is potentially life-threatening, you should go to the emergency room (ER). Emergency rooms are the only medical facility that is adequately equipped to treat life-threatening medical emergencies. However, for individuals experiencing less critical illnesses or injuries, emergency rooms are less than ideal, both for reasons of time and money. Since emergency rooms are the only medical facility that treats life-threatening medical emergencies, patients in less critical condition tend to spend much longer times in the waiting room. Moreover, emergency room services are typically much more expensive than other medical facilities, such as urgent care clinics.

With that in mind, it is better to go to an urgent care clinic if your illness or injury is not life-threatening, as you will likely save time and money. If you have an illness or injury that is not life-threatening but still requires urgent treatment, a physician will see you promptly at an urgent care clinic. If not, a physician or practitioner will see you according to when you arrive at the clinic. Either way, you will likely see a physician or practitioner sooner at an urgent care clinic than the ER.

If you are looking for an urgent care clinic in Spokane, WA, that provides emergency care for non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries and minor emergencies, we welcome you to come to Franklin Park Urgent Care!

In general, emergency care refers to emergency room services in a hospital setting where doctors and nurses use life-saving measures to prevent the death or permanent impairment of a patient’s health. However, that is typically the most extreme use of emergency care, as it can also refer to the medical care of minor emergencies, such as fractures, lacerations, animal bites, and the like, which could progress into critical medical conditions if not treated urgently.

There are several different types of emergency care, including medical care that takes place in ambulances or other medical transportation units, first aid, intensive care units (ICU), hospital emergency rooms, or urgent care clinics for minor emergencies. In terms of what is qualified as emergency care, it can refer to any of the following:

– Breathing difficulties
– Chest pain
– Epileptic seizures
– Excessive bleeding or bleeding that will not stop
– Heart attack
– Mental crises
– Minor emergencies, such as fractures or lacerations that do not involve major organs or are not life-threatening
– Severe, unbearable, and unexplained pain
– Stroke

The above are a few examples that warrant emergency care. As previously stated, any life-threatening medical emergency requires emergency room treatment, while minor emergencies that are not life-threatening can be treated at urgent care clinics.

At Franklin Park Urgent Care, our medical doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician’s assistants provide emergency care for minor emergencies by taking swift and skilled action whenever a patient comes to us with a minor medical emergency. While our clinic operates on a first-come, first-served basis for common medical concerns, we provide express service for minor medical emergencies so that such patients can receive the urgent care they need. As such, we evaluate each patient’s needs when they arrive at our clinic before determining whether they need emergency care or routine care.

Urgent care refers to medical facilities that provide healthcare services to individuals who are not affiliated with a primary care physician and those whose injuries or illnesses are not life-threatening but still warrant same-day medical attention. While urgent care clinics offer some emergency care services, they are not equipped to provide emergency care for life-threatening medical emergencies. In this way, emergency care partially refers to services that urgent care clinics like ours at Franklin Park Urgent Care provide, but more substantially to those that emergency rooms offer.