Emergency Room Vs. Urgent Care Vs. Clinic

Wait! Before you go to the emergency room (and for goodness sakes, before you even try to call 911), ask yourself this question: could I die from my problem? If the answer is no, then that automatically means that you do not need to go to the emergency room and it definitely means that you don't need to call 911.

I've written an article earlier concering abusing the 911 system, that many people call the ambulance for everything they could think of. Recently while on the job, I've listened to quite a few dispatch information that were absolutely ridiculous. Someone called 911 to have an infection on his private area checked out. Just to let you know, people, if you have an infection on your private parts, you will not die from that.

Not only do emergency responders get tired of all the ridiculous calls they have to respond to, but emergency room staff gets tired of seeing people who don't really need to be there. The emergency room gets loaded with people, and many of them are there for problems that could have been handled in a clinic type setting than in an emergency setting. That is to say, many people they see don't have true emergencies.

Why do you think you always wait forever whenever you go to emergency rooms? You go there and wait five or more hours to be seen by someone and you get frustrated. Well, those with true emergencies will be seen first, and whether or not you arrived by ambulance doesn't always make things go faster for you. Once the true emergencies are dealt with, then you would be seen.

So, how could you avoid wasting your time in an emergency room? Go to a clinic or to an urgent care facility.

The emergency room are for people with true emergencies such as life-threatening situations, bad car cashes, severe burns, near amputated parts, severe allergic reactions, or anything that threatens your life, body part, or could have severe long-term affects on you.

If you simply want something checked out, then you need to go to a clinic so the staff there could determine how bad your problem is and where would be the best place to treat it. Most often your problem could be fixed in a clinical setting.