Would you go to the ER for this?

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

If someone had a huge boil on thier arm with a growing red ring around it, nausea, and dizziness, as well as a fever.....would it be a good idea to go to the er? my friend had this, she's ok now, has gotten medical treatment and antibiotics. Is this what you all would consider something that needs to be seen in an ER or in an urgent care setting?

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Urgent care would be fine and would be my first choice if it were me or my family. I'm a big fan of walk in care clinics.

But with the symptoms of nausea/fever/dizziness it's not something that could wait and I could understand an ER visit if urgent care wasn't available, as they would be able to lance it if necessary.

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Specializes in Orthopaedics ; Rehab ; Minor Injuries.

We get some UNBELIEVABLE traumas that turn up here!

- The most pathetic one recently was a man that turned up with an 'itchy back' ... having just come from having his hair cut! ... it was the hairs down his shirt:lol2: (one of those moments when you had to bite your tongue !!!! - you couldnt make it up sometimes)

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

If it were me or my family member, my first call would be to the PCP.

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If it were me or my family member, my first call would be to the PCP.

No offense, but spoken like someone who has health insurance.

Sadly, many are without health insurance. Even at the urgent care clinics they require payment for services at the time of the visit. Not everyone can afford that. Now that I have health insurance, I would not go to the ER with such a concern, but without it...you betcha. There are no other options. Have you ever tried making an appointment with a doctor without insurance? It's a pretty quick call and ends with "Sorry, unless you pay in advance we can't see you".

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We get some UNBELIEVABLE traumas that turn up here!

- The most pathetic one recently was a man that turned up with an 'itchy back' ... having just come from having his hair cut! ... it was the hairs down his shirt:lol2: (one of those moments when you had to bite your tongue !!!! - you couldnt make it up sometimes)

Wow, that's .....amazing. LOL.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

had someone come in by ambulance for a paper cut. I couldn't even find it, she had to point it out to me. Can we say therapeutic wait time.

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Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.

I'm the most skeptical person on the planet when it comes to quality of care...but I would feel perfectly comfortable going to Urgent care for just about anything except breathing issues/chest pains/broken bones.

I had a huge boil as a child under my arm (still have a scar from it), and it was toward my back and I couldn't readily see it, and my mom only discovered it after I ran a fever...she just gave me Tylonal until the next day, but kept alternating between hot and cold compresses on it until then.

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Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.
No offense, but spoken like someone who has health insurance.

Sadly, many are without health insurance. Even at the urgent care clinics they require payment for services at the time of the visit. Not everyone can afford that. Now that I have health insurance, I would not go to the ER with such a concern, but without it...you betcha. There are no other options. Have you ever tried making an appointment with a doctor without insurance? It's a pretty quick call and ends with "Sorry, unless you pay in advance we can't see you".

The Urgent Cares in my area, the whole reason I go, is when I tell them I don't have insurance, they only charge me about $60 and sometimes give me sample meds so I don't have to get a prescription filled.

I was very, very ill in October...I was in early stages of pneumonia, and the Urgent Care doctor wanted to put me into the hospital, and I started crying and I told him I didn't have insurance....he gave me a breathing treatment for an hour, didn't charge me for it...and could give me all of the meds (steriods, etc) but one for free...but made me PROMISE to come back in two days so he could listen to my lungs again...no charge.

Then I was crying because I was so grateful (I told him I had quit work to try to go to nursing school), he just gave me a casual hug and said, "Hey, what do you think we all did while in med school? You can pay me back by being a great nurse."

I had never been so incredibly humbled.

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No offense, but spoken like someone who has health insurance.

Sadly, many are without health insurance. Even at the urgent care clinics they require payment for services at the time of the visit. Not everyone can afford that. Now that I have health insurance, I would not go to the ER with such a concern, but without it...you betcha. There are no other options. Have you ever tried making an appointment with a doctor without insurance? It's a pretty quick call and ends with "Sorry, unless you pay in advance we can't see you".

I've had many times in my life where I didn't have health insurance and my first call would be to my family doc. Anything he came up with sure would be a HECK of a lot cheaper than an ER visit. :uhoh21:

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
No offense, but spoken like someone who has health insurance.

Sadly, many are without health insurance. Even at the urgent care clinics they require payment for services at the time of the visit. Not everyone can afford that. Now that I have health insurance, I would not go to the ER with such a concern, but without it...you betcha. There are no other options. Have you ever tried making an appointment with a doctor without insurance? It's a pretty quick call and ends with "Sorry, unless you pay in advance we can't see you".

No offense, but spoken like someone who feels they are entitled to receive health care (for non-life-threatening situations) at no cost.

Health insurance or not, isn't the goal to get the best appropriate care at the lowest out-of-pocket cost? Without insurance, an office visit will probably run me less than $200 ... an ER visit will be a minimum of $500 to $1000.

I cannot imagine expecting services to be provided (in a non-life-threatening situation) for free -- I expect to have to pay appropriately for services, whether that's in the form of insurance premiums or directly out of my pocket.

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Specializes in Emergency.
No offense, but spoken like someone who feels they are entitled to receive health care (for non-life-threatening situations) at no cost.

Health insurance or not, isn't the goal to get the best appropriate care at the lowest out-of-pocket cost? Without insurance, an office visit will probably run me less than $200 ... an ER visit will be a minimum of $500 to $1000.

I cannot imagine expecting services to be provided (in a non-life-threatening situation) for free -- I expect to have to pay appropriately for services, whether that's in the form of insurance premiums or directly out of my pocket.

AMEN!!!

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