By: Deborah Palmer

It's best to be prepared, know where to go before you need to go before you need to seek treatment. Urgent care vs. emergency room?

What is the difference between Urgent and Emergency?

A medical "emergency" is a serious, sometimes deadly condition which requires immediate treatment. Alternatively "urgent" medial conditions should receive timely, but not emergent medical care.

Why choose an Urgent Care?

Urgent care helps to fix the gap when you cannot get into to see your regular doctor in a timely manner (or don't have a primary care provider), but don’t have a life threatening condition requiring a trip to the emergency room. If you personally haven't experienced the frustration of not being able to get a same day/next day appointment with your primary care, I'm sure you know someone who has. The goal to allow affordable, non-emergency access to care. Urgent care clinics provide care for minor illness or injury and have available appointments outside the 8-5 hours of most doctor offices and offer weekend hours.

Urgent care centers are still relatively new; prior to the 1970s urgent care didn’t exist, your only option was the Emergency Room or your primary care doctor.  Unlike urgent care centers, emergency room visits are more expensive with longer wait times.

Urgent care clinics are not intended to replace your primary care physician or a the emergency department.

Medical Emergency - When to Skip the Urgent Care?

Medical emergencies are those that put you at risk of death or longterm disability if not treated in a timely manner. Listed are health issues that require immediate emergency treatment:

• Chest pain

• Difficulty breathing

• Trauma due to accident or fall

• Severe abdominal pain

• Worse headache of your life

• Sudden vision loss

• Sudden weakness or numbness of face or body, especially one-sided 

• Coughing or vomiting blood

• Severe burns

• Severe bleeding

• Suicidal or homicidal feelings

If you are having a medical emergency, do not delay, dial 911 or proceed to the nearest emergency room.

How are patients prioritized?

Emergency rooms wait times are based on severity of illnesses, life threatening situations (see above) requiring immediate medical attention will be seen first. Since emergency departments treat conditions more serious than those found in walk-in clinics and this affects wait times, for the worse.

What sets Freedom Doctors - Mobile Urgent Care apart from most Urgent Care Clinics?

When you’re looking for an urgent care near you; what’s closer than your own home? Freedom Doctors Mobile Urgent Care is different because we're "mobile", so we bring the doctor to you when you're sick.

Freedom Doctors Mobile Urgent Care is a house call urgent care serving Southern-central Massachusetts including Holland, Wales, Brimfield, Sturbridge and Northern-central Connecticut including Union.

We also offer virtual visits (telemedicine) throughout MA and CT. We do no provide emergency care, if your concern if more serious you will be directed to go to the emergency department.

What can an Urgent Care treat?

Urgent care can treat a variety of non-life-threatening conditions including strep throat, ear infections, urinary track infections, minor asthma attacks, skin conditions, minor broken bones, lacerations requiring stitches, and much more.  See a full list of Freedom Doctors - Mobile Urgent Care services.

An urgent care center can administer medications and do basic procedures, say you require stitches, need a boil lanced or a nebulizer treatment.

What’s different about a Retail Clinic?

Retail clinics located in drug stores and grocery stores came into existence in the early 2000s, these are staffed by nurse practitioner and physician assistances (not physicians).  Although not actually urgent cares, they can diagnosis and treat minor illness such as strep throat, urinary tract infection, pink eye, ear infections, skin conditions, and minor injuries such as joint sprains, minor wounds and prescribe medications when medically appropriate.   However, if you need stitches, a retail clinic isn't appropriate. 

Who will treat my injury or illness?

Freedom Doctors is staffed by a compassionate board-certified physician.

By comparison most traditional urgent cares are staffed by a combination or physicians (MD or DOs), physician assistances (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs).  Retail Clinics are staffed by physician assistances and nurse practitioners.

Do I need to make an appointment or do you accept urgent care walk-ins?

Since Freedom Doctors - Mobile Urgent Care does home visits we do require you to make an appointment ahead of time, you can schedule an appointment for yourself or a family member by giving us a call or online.  Since we don't have a physical office location we cannot offer walk-ins.   Think of us as a walk-in clinic without the waiting room.

Urgent Care hours?

Unlike your emergency room, urgent cares do not provide 24-7 access to care, but have evening and weekend hours.

Freedom Doctors is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for home visits, and limited Saturdays and Sundays, so call to check availability.

How much will a visit cost?

The decision about where to get medical attention may help you save on the cost of your medical bill. Overall urgent care clinics are less expensive compared to the emergency department.

Prices charged at urgent care clinics are not actual standardized between clinics, cost of your visit will vary on location, insurance and medical complexity. The standard cost in urgent care where insurance cover is not involved ranges from $50 to $200; this price is generally the standard price of a visit before any extra services. There are a couple of additional care services that could make your appointment to an urgent care costly including x-rays and lab tests, medications, nebulizer treatments, and injections (such as immunization), stitches and splints. If you have a high deductible plan you may be paying for these services 100% out of pocket until you hit your deductible (which could easily be $2,000), so only after you reach that $2,000 threshold does your health plan pays its share of the cost. Every plan is different so we always encourage people to talk to their insurance and know what things actually cost.

Freedom Doctor - Mobile Urgent Care focus is on transparency in pricing, we do not bill insurance, so regardless of insurance you know from the start exactly what your visit will cost.

Urgent Care facilities provide care for illness or injury that don’t necessity Emergency Room level of care.  If you believe you are having a medical emergency, do not delay, dial 911 or proceed to the nearest emergency room.

Other topics you’re interested in hearing about send us an email. Contact Us.