You might think urgent care and immediate care are interchangeable—and hey, we wouldn’t blame you if you did. After all, “urgent” and “immediate” certainly sound like they could probably mean the same thing. But did you know there are actually crucial differences between these two services? Knowing the difference will help you know where to go if you need care—and how to get that care as fast as possible.
What’s Urgent Care?
If you are trying to decide between immediate care or urgent care you can consider urgent care as the “middle ground” between seeing a primary care provider for an illness, or going to the emergency room. Urgent care is designed to treat non-life threatening illnesses or injuries, but is typically better equipped than your average immediate care facility. However, it’s important to note that urgent care is not emergency care. If you’re dealing with a serious illness or injury that cannot wait, you need to seek emergency care at a hospital right away.
But for less severe pain, illness, or injury that isn’t directly threatening your life but still needs to be quickly addressed—such as abdominal pain, fever without a rash, small cuts that may require stitches, dehydration, or sprains and strains to name a few—urgent care can get the job done. Plus, most urgent care facilities offer X-rays and other diagnostic services to help get to the root of problems quickly, without having to wait for an appointment with your primary care provider.
What’s Immediate Care?
Immediate care is—well, immediate. But that doesn’t mean it’s the same as going to a hospital in a crisis. For example, let’s say you’re dealing with cold or flu symptoms, or have another minor illness or injury. You may not want to wait to make an appointment with your primary care provider, but it’s not critical enough to warrant a trip to the ER or urgent care. Immediate care facilities are designed to do just that—provide immediate care for small, non-life threatening ailments.
But, thanks to facilities like Gateway Hancock Health, you get more than just fast care. You’ll still get the benefits of an urgent care facility—such as X-rays, diagnostics, and labs and imaging—but at up to 50% less cost than if you went to a hospital. And not only that, but Gateway has primary care physicians available on-site, so you can knock out appointments with a provider for all the members of your family, all in one place.
So whatever you’re dealing with, Hancock Health is here for you. And now, you’ll know where to go.