CONVENIENT, URGENT, EMERGENCY! WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
When in doubt, check it out—that’s the old saying when it comes to your health. After all, how else can you be certain that muscle pain is nothing more than a strain?
But with so many options out there, figuring out where to go to get ‘checked out’ is not always clear, especially on a weekend or late at night. And that can lead some people to go with their first (but not always best) instinct: the Emergency Department (ED). If you go to the ED, and you really are a non-emergency case, you’ll end up waiting a long time—and the visit will cost a lot more than treatment in a non-emergency setting.
Augusta Health offers three levels of quality care to treat its community’s emergent and not-so-emergent needs: emergency care, urgent care and convenient care. All will take insurance and will try to get you in and out as quickly as possible. The best choice for you depends on the treatment you need:
· Emergency care is provided by physicians and ED staff in the hospital’s ED for those cases when receiving immediate treatment could result is a loss of life or other complications—for example, heart attack, stroke or poisoning.
· Urgent care is designed to handle those less serious medical conditional that still require immediate treatment but aren’t life-threatening. A fever, bronchitis or a cut that looks like it requires stitches can be handled at Augusta Health’s Urgent Care Clinics, located in Weyers Cave and Staunton (opening February 15). Urgent Care sees patients of all ages and is staffed by board-certified emergency medicine physicians.
· Convenient care tackles the most minor cases, such as ear infections and sore throats, as well as work and school physicals. Convenient Care Clinics are available in the Waynesboro and Staunton Walmarts, treats patients older than age 6, and are staff by nurse practitioners.
Services offered at Urgent Care and Convenient Care Clinics are not meant to replace a primary care physician. They are for those who can’t get in to see their physician, or need help outside office hours. They are convenient, take patients on a walk-in basis and are a faster and less costly alternative to the Emergency Department.