August 8, 2025 • 11 mins
Urgent Care or ER? How to Decide Fast
Should I Call or Go to Urgent Care? Medical Advice Made Simple
Emergency Room vs. Urgent Care: Which Is Right for You?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Urgent Care Unscripted.
(00:02):
My name is Barbara Reynolds.
Here I am the director of operations andbusiness development for AFC Urgent Care.
And this is Mohammad Salman and thefranchise here on earth devastated. And
today we
want to talk about, urgent care versusemergency room.
(00:24):
More precisely, when you have some kindof an illness and you're trying to decide
where to go, should I go to an urgent careor, emergency room?
We want to talk about that.
And what are the most common scenariosthat,
we face when you're makingwhen you're trying to make that decision?
Yeah.
Today we're joined by DoctorFelix Pacheco.
He is our medical directorand also a veteran E.R.
(00:47):
physician. So welcome, doctor Pacheco.
Hello. Thank you for having me.
I would like to add,you know, a lot of, patient complaints.
I've seen emergency departmentsthat can adequately be handled.
And as you can see them, you know,think about your your pulse,
your springs, if you ever walk on itand you would be fine.
(01:08):
You could probably see an urgent care.
Got it.
And so these are some of the scenariosthat you just mentioned, opportunities
that are not complexenough for people to warrant
an urgent, emergency, visit,I guess, right?
Yeah.
I mean, sometimes it's hard to tell,but either way, I'll providers
could make an assessment fairly quicklyand determine whether or not,
(01:30):
you know,a higher level of care is necessary.
That's great.
I think one point is to think about,is this a straightforward case?
Is it going to require,you know, an MRI or a cat scan?
Obviously not every patient knows that.
But it's good to call.
You can always call us and we can at leastguide you one way or another.
Yeah.
So once the patient has actually arrived,saved
(01:52):
the patient has made the choiceto come to an urgent care.
How do
we howdoes the provider make that distinction?
Should they give us the decision
actually, to an urgent.
So this is the, the issue is, evaluation
(02:13):
and how the patient appears, you know,you know, getting vital signs
makes it even more objective, getting,you know, a blood pressure or heart rate,
temperature and such, that,
you know, laying eyes on the patientto see how much they structure it.
That's said,some things are going to be difficult.
If you're coming in from a trauma that,you know, maybe hasn't
fully manifested yet,
(02:34):
you know,
maybe you have some internal bleedingthat is, identified,
it may be stablebecause you're getting healthy
and you work out, you know,you may be like that for a while,
and then you manifest later, by somebody, you know,
getting a history,determining the severity of the injury.
And, you know, making the best judgmentas to whether or not
that needs to be seen in person,
(02:55):
in an emergency settingor in the urgent care setting,
and would also is a risk assessment,right?
So if you have a patientwho is a little bit older,
who has diabetes, heart disease,those are things that we take into account
before we make the decision ofwe're going to treat you here versus
we're going to send you outto the emergency room 100% completely.
But any assessment requiresa, risk assessment of the patient.
(03:19):
You know, how old you are, how many,
comorbidities, how many,you know, illnesses they might have.
You know,
that changes the, presentation of illness
and the types of diseasesthey may be susceptible to.
So just sounds like it's not like a very
straightforward decision.
(03:41):
For the provider,they have to go through, diagnosis.
They have to, hear out what the conditionof from the patient and do some tests
and then maybe make that call, like,okay, yes, we can treat that patient here.
Or, you know, itis, in a, in a stage or condition
that is advanced diagnosis and so forth.
(04:02):
Yeah.
You know, there's a lot of gray, and we try to keep this simple, you know,
if you have, like a ten year old,they got cut,
playing with like,a little, a little knife or something
and just have a small lacerationto a finger, you know?
And it's very deep. Right?
Then you have a high speed,you know, car accident.
(04:25):
They have rolled over and the pieceinto the hands of the patient
will have their seatbelt on,and they lost consciousness.
You know, those are kind of the exampleswhere one very easily can be dealt with.
Yeah. And the other not.
One thing that I see too, with,when it comes to lacerations,
at least from the provider's perspective,is having, you know, face lacerations.
(04:48):
At the end of the day,if you want that to be done by a surgeon
or, you know, like a plastic surgeon,you're going to have a scar.
If you get have done it, we can do it. But
you might have a little
bit of a scarthat is not so nice to look at.
And most cars are not going to havea plastic surgeon trail
they can repair,but they may have some other,
(05:10):
surgical specialtiesthat may make the, wound look nicer.
So that that is true.
I mean, depends on the complexityof the illness and the concern
the patient may have regarding your custompieces.
You know,you know how much it affected looks.
One thing that I, also wanted to mentionand just mentioned
(05:30):
for the patients here is,you know, your body better than anybody.
So if you feel like you should goto the emergency room, do that for sure.
You know, like you and again, we have,
people on site, if you're unsure.
The benefit of urgent careis, ease of access.
Yeah. Time. And time is a big one.
(05:54):
We tend to be able to see patientswithin an hour of their arrival,
potentially even have the patientdischarged within an hour of arrival.
Obviously,it, though, depends on how busy it is.
But either way,in an emergency department setting
and then the time of year,you know, you'd be lucky.
Happy to see you within two hours,usually, or ten times longer than that.
(06:18):
So time, please, will, make sure you knowhow much you pay in your copay.
You know that obviously there aresome motivations from the insurance
perspective regarding change, a patient'surgent care versus versus primary care.
But either way, there's,a cost, to that, that
patient depending on the carrier.
But at the end of the day,like at our urgent care in West Haven.
(06:40):
Yes, in this stateand I would say any urgent care
and, patient's health,
that interest is the topand only priority, would have to say.
Right. Their health is the priority.
Nothing else really mattersfrom just a human perspective
and also from a legal perspective.
If you have a conditionthat's not within our scope,
(07:03):
we will be in troubleto try to do anything about it.
And it would be best served for us as wellas for you.
When we refer you to a, emergency room
instead of trying to tackle itat the urgent care.
So that's not something bad for youthat we could not or failed,
quote unquote, to treat.
You have the urgent carethat we offered you to the emergency room.
(07:26):
That's for your best interests.
And we would do that often
when we see that that's the conditionthat needs to be treated.
And it's you need to recoverand it's for your best interest
that you should go to an audience,you know, so you're welcome to come here.
But then we will alsomake the best decision
that suits your needs to this.
(07:47):
Yeah. Definitely.
Health in mind first.
And this is where we have to, adjust.
Maybe the patient's expectations. Yeah.
You know, they,you know, maybe thought it was minor.
And then we find out
that is something that is a little bitmore than we can handle.
And, you know, we want to make sureyou have the best outcome.
You know what?
You, to be able to walk again,you know, be able to see us again,
(08:10):
you have to be happy with the careyou receive.
And it would be, a problem for everyoneif, you know,
an emergency was attemptedto be treated in a non-emergency setting.
Yeah.
Okay. Resources.
Absolutely.
And coming from somebody that has worked
with hundreds of providersin an urgent care setting,
I can definitely say thatif we're sending you
(08:31):
to the emergency room, it'sbecause that provider really
can or already did the bestthat they could for you in that situation.
It's not because they don'twant to treat you.
It's not because they don't want to,you know,
do whatever it is that you need to do.
It's it's really for the best.
So just just trustthe process is what I'll say.
Yeah.
It's always kind of interestingbecause, you know,
(08:53):
it can be a fairly straightforwardevaluation on a patient, you know,
that depending on the patient
expectation, and,you know, it's taken easily or not.
So, yeah, that's a role to take, you know.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, providers are humans.
So at the end of the day,
some may have more capabilitiesand others do comfortability.
(09:17):
I think it's a big thing toowithin the provider network system.
So just keep that in mind as well.
I yeah. You touch on the point.
The provider some are greater.
Risk takers.
I'm not concerned, but I'm willingto take on more responsibility,
you know, you know,and everybody's a little bit different.
(09:38):
So each provider, you know,
may make a different assessmentwith the same patient
depending on how much eachwants to be able to have that condition.
Yeah. You guys are not robots.
So And actually, one thingI forgot to mention, the severity
of the pain, also plays a role, right?
So one can argue that kidney stones are a,
(09:59):
a lifethreatening condition most of the time,
but the severity of the pain is difficultto manage in your care setting.
So, you know,if you have, like, severe pain,
that can be great in your caresetting as well.
Yeah, absolutely.
Trust your instinctsand don't hesitate to call.
Don't hesitate to call your local urgentcare us and say this is what I'm feeling.
(10:21):
Should I come here?Should I go to the emergency room?
We'll do the best to kind of guideyou ahead of time and again.
We might say, come and see us.
We'll try to assess you.
And if it's something that we can't do,we will send you to the emergency room
as needed.
Thank you so much, Felix,for joining us today.
That was some really insightfulinformation.
I think our patientswill definitely appreciate it.
(10:43):
Thank you. See you next time.
Stay informed and stay safeand subscribe to us and gifted.
We look forward to seeing you againfor the next episode. Yep.
And keep in mind we are located at 354Sawmill Road in West Haven.
Come see us anytimeyou need us. Thank you. Bye.
Welcome back to Urgent Care Unscripted.
(00:02):
My name is Barbara Reynolds.
Here I am the director of operations andbusiness development for AFC Urgent Care.
And this is Mohammad Salman and thefranchise here on earth devastated. And
today we
want to talk about, urgent care versusemergency room.
(00:24):
More precisely, when you have some kindof an illness and you're trying to decide
where to go, should I go to an urgent careor, emergency room?
We want to talk about that.
And what are the most common scenariosthat,
we face when you're makingwhen you're trying to make that decision?
Yeah.
Today we're joined by DoctorFelix Pacheco.
He is our medical directorand also a veteran E.R.
(00:47):
physician. So welcome, doctor Pacheco.
Hello. Thank you for having me.
I would like to add,you know, a lot of, patient complaints.
I've seen emergency departmentsthat can adequately be handled.
And as you can see them, you know,think about your your pulse,
your springs, if you ever walk on itand you would be fine.
(01:08):
You could probably see an urgent care.
Got it.
And so these are some of the scenariosthat you just mentioned, opportunities
that are not complexenough for people to warrant
an urgent, emergency, visit,I guess, right?
Yeah.
I mean, sometimes it's hard to tell,but either way, I'll providers
could make an assessment fairly quicklyand determine whether or not,
(01:30):
you know,a higher level of care is necessary.
That's great.
I think one point is to think about,is this a straightforward case?
Is it going to require,you know, an MRI or a cat scan?
Obviously not every patient knows that.
But it's good to call.
You can always call us and we can at leastguide you one way or another.
Yeah.
So once the patient has actually arrived,saved
(01:52):
the patient has made the choiceto come to an urgent care.
How do
we howdoes the provider make that distinction?
Should they give us the decision
actually, to an urgent.
So this is the, the issue is, evaluation
(02:13):
and how the patient appears, you know,you know, getting vital signs
makes it even more objective, getting,you know, a blood pressure or heart rate,
temperature and such, that,
you know, laying eyes on the patientto see how much they structure it.
That's said,some things are going to be difficult.
If you're coming in from a trauma that,you know, maybe hasn't
fully manifested yet,
(02:34):
you know,
maybe you have some internal bleedingthat is, identified,
it may be stablebecause you're getting healthy
and you work out, you know,you may be like that for a while,
and then you manifest later, by somebody, you know,
getting a history,determining the severity of the injury.
And, you know, making the best judgmentas to whether or not
that needs to be seen in person,
(02:55):
in an emergency settingor in the urgent care setting,
and would also is a risk assessment,right?
So if you have a patientwho is a little bit older,
who has diabetes, heart disease,those are things that we take into account
before we make the decision ofwe're going to treat you here versus
we're going to send you outto the emergency room 100% completely.
But any assessment requiresa, risk assessment of the patient.
(03:19):
You know, how old you are, how many,
comorbidities, how many,you know, illnesses they might have.
You know,
that changes the, presentation of illness
and the types of diseasesthey may be susceptible to.
So just sounds like it's not like a very
straightforward decision.
(03:41):
For the provider,they have to go through, diagnosis.
They have to, hear out what the conditionof from the patient and do some tests
and then maybe make that call, like,okay, yes, we can treat that patient here.
Or, you know, itis, in a, in a stage or condition
that is advanced diagnosis and so forth.
(04:02):
Yeah.
You know, there's a lot of gray, and we try to keep this simple, you know,
if you have, like a ten year old,they got cut,
playing with like,a little, a little knife or something
and just have a small lacerationto a finger, you know?
And it's very deep. Right?
Then you have a high speed,you know, car accident.
(04:25):
They have rolled over and the pieceinto the hands of the patient
will have their seatbelt on,and they lost consciousness.
You know, those are kind of the exampleswhere one very easily can be dealt with.
Yeah. And the other not.
One thing that I see too, with,when it comes to lacerations,
at least from the provider's perspective,is having, you know, face lacerations.
(04:48):
At the end of the day,if you want that to be done by a surgeon
or, you know, like a plastic surgeon,you're going to have a scar.
If you get have done it, we can do it. But
you might have a little
bit of a scarthat is not so nice to look at.
And most cars are not going to havea plastic surgeon trail
they can repair,but they may have some other,
(05:10):
surgical specialtiesthat may make the, wound look nicer.
So that that is true.
I mean, depends on the complexityof the illness and the concern
the patient may have regarding your custompieces.
You know,you know how much it affected looks.
One thing that I, also wanted to mentionand just mentioned
(05:30):
for the patients here is,you know, your body better than anybody.
So if you feel like you should goto the emergency room, do that for sure.
You know, like you and again, we have,
people on site, if you're unsure.
The benefit of urgent careis, ease of access.
Yeah. Time. And time is a big one.
(05:54):
We tend to be able to see patientswithin an hour of their arrival,
potentially even have the patientdischarged within an hour of arrival.
Obviously,it, though, depends on how busy it is.
But either way,in an emergency department setting
and then the time of year,you know, you'd be lucky.
Happy to see you within two hours,usually, or ten times longer than that.
(06:18):
So time, please, will, make sure you knowhow much you pay in your copay.
You know that obviously there aresome motivations from the insurance
perspective regarding change, a patient'surgent care versus versus primary care.
But either way, there's,a cost, to that, that
patient depending on the carrier.
But at the end of the day,like at our urgent care in West Haven.
(06:40):
Yes, in this stateand I would say any urgent care
and, patient's health,
that interest is the topand only priority, would have to say.
Right. Their health is the priority.
Nothing else really mattersfrom just a human perspective
and also from a legal perspective.
If you have a conditionthat's not within our scope,
(07:03):
we will be in troubleto try to do anything about it.
And it would be best served for us as wellas for you.
When we refer you to a, emergency room
instead of trying to tackle itat the urgent care.
So that's not something bad for youthat we could not or failed,
quote unquote, to treat.
You have the urgent carethat we offered you to the emergency room.
(07:26):
That's for your best interests.
And we would do that often
when we see that that's the conditionthat needs to be treated.
And it's you need to recoverand it's for your best interest
that you should go to an audience,you know, so you're welcome to come here.
But then we will alsomake the best decision
that suits your needs to this.
(07:47):
Yeah. Definitely.
Health in mind first.
And this is where we have to, adjust.
Maybe the patient's expectations. Yeah.
You know, they,you know, maybe thought it was minor.
And then we find out
that is something that is a little bitmore than we can handle.
And, you know, we want to make sureyou have the best outcome.
You know what?
You, to be able to walk again,you know, be able to see us again,
(08:10):
you have to be happy with the careyou receive.
And it would be, a problem for everyoneif, you know,
an emergency was attemptedto be treated in a non-emergency setting.
Yeah.
Okay. Resources.
Absolutely.
And coming from somebody that has worked
with hundreds of providersin an urgent care setting,
I can definitely say thatif we're sending you
(08:31):
to the emergency room, it'sbecause that provider really
can or already did the bestthat they could for you in that situation.
It's not because they don'twant to treat you.
It's not because they don't want to,you know,
do whatever it is that you need to do.
It's it's really for the best.
So just just trustthe process is what I'll say.
Yeah.
It's always kind of interestingbecause, you know,
(08:53):
it can be a fairly straightforwardevaluation on a patient, you know,
that depending on the patient
expectation, and,you know, it's taken easily or not.
So, yeah, that's a role to take, you know.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, providers are humans.
So at the end of the day,
some may have more capabilitiesand others do comfortability.
(09:17):
I think it's a big thing toowithin the provider network system.
So just keep that in mind as well.
I yeah. You touch on the point.
The provider some are greater.
Risk takers.
I'm not concerned, but I'm willingto take on more responsibility,
you know, you know,and everybody's a little bit different.
(09:38):
So each provider, you know,
may make a different assessmentwith the same patient
depending on how much eachwants to be able to have that condition.
Yeah. You guys are not robots.
So And actually, one thingI forgot to mention, the severity
of the pain, also plays a role, right?
So one can argue that kidney stones are a,
(09:59):
a lifethreatening condition most of the time,
but the severity of the pain is difficultto manage in your care setting.
So, you know,if you have, like, severe pain,
that can be great in your caresetting as well.
Yeah, absolutely.
Trust your instinctsand don't hesitate to call.
Don't hesitate to call your local urgentcare us and say this is what I'm feeling.
(10:21):
Should I come here?Should I go to the emergency room?
We'll do the best to kind of guideyou ahead of time and again.
We might say, come and see us.
We'll try to assess you.
And if it's something that we can't do,we will send you to the emergency room
as needed.
Thank you so much, Felix,for joining us today.
That was some really insightfulinformation.
I think our patientswill definitely appreciate it.
(10:43):
Thank you. See you next time.
Stay informed and stay safeand subscribe to us and gifted.
We look forward to seeing you againfor the next episode. Yep.
And keep in mind we are located at 354Sawmill Road in West Haven.
Come see us anytimeyou need us. Thank you. Bye.
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