Difference Bewteen"Emergency Care" and "Urgent Care"?

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I see facilities advertise for these types of nursing positions and am a little confused as to the difference between the two. To the newbie nursing student (me), they seem to be about the same. Thanks!

Specializes in Peds.

When my daughter had a severe dermatologic reaction to ivy and oak, we went to urgent care. Had she had an anaphalactic reaction, I'd have called 911 and we'd have gone to the ER. It happened on a weekend when the pediatrician wasn't in or I'd have taken her there but she quickly needed a steroid injectection and PO steroids among other things.

All 5 of my kids have fractured something at some point, normally in the course of playing sports. They've all been simple fx's except one of them..... they all went to urgent care except the one and she went to the ER for that one. When my youngest took off the end of her finger in the dead bolt of the front door....we went to the closest ER. They sent us to Children's after getting her taken care of to have it reattached.

I just take the more urgent than emergent issues to urgent care and more serious issues to the ER. My insurance company is happier that way and so is my wallet insofar as copays. Besides, urgent care centers are usually faster than ER's..... Just my:twocents:

Here's one link that explains the difference:

http://www.bu.edu/hr/bu_benefits/plans/health/health_ver2_no8882324/urgent_tuftspremium.shtml

Specializes in Peds.

Wow.....you have to get permission to go to an urgent care center from your PCP? Is your PCP on call 24/7?

We have an HMO whic can be a pain but at least they know I'm bright enough to decide whether or not we need medical attention....

The link wasn't to my health plan. Just thought it did a good job explaining the concept at hand. :)

We have an HMO whic can be a pain but at least they know I'm bright enough to decide whether or not we need medical attention....

:nono: don't be too sure. I have plenty of friends who found their HMO denied their ER visit because they didn't get permission from their PCP first...HMO's are famous for this...

Specializes in Peds.
:nono: don't be too sure. I have plenty of friends who found their HMO denied their ER visit because they didn't get permission from their PCP first...HMO's are famous for this...

I don't presume to know how other insurances work. I just know that neither of the 2 HMO's I've been on required permission to go to the ER (of course they do charge higher copays). They have both required that I call within 24 business hours of an emergency which took place out of our service area. This only happened once....my daughter was at Space Camp in AL and fell. The nurse thought she may have broken her arm and called me. Fortunately it was only sprained.

Thanks for the info Eric, it is clear to me now....Didn't mean to start a new discussion on co-pays!

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