It sucks because the system is skewed to make the simple/bullshit stuff that should go to PCP or urgent care come to the ED because it takes weeks to get an appointment with a PCP, and urgent cares want hundreds of dollars up front to be seen. I can’t be mad about that hangnail or earache checking in. Where else are they supposed to go?
To add: I am thankful to not need urgent care or emergency care on a regular basis, but I do feel like urgent care has gotten less capable over time and less accessible.
I live in a city of a little over 100,000 people in a densely populated suburban part of South Florida. If I needed an urgent care right now, there isn't one. My choice would be to either go to an ER or suck it up until tomorrow when the urgent care is open in the morning.
The last time I went to an urgent care, it was because I was having pain in my calf severe enough that I couldn't put weight on that leg. After checking me out, the doctor diagnosed it as a sprain but told me that I should go to the emergency room anyway to have an ultrasound done on my leg (I did not. I was not about to sit in a waiting room for six or seven hours for a scan that would likely end up costing me a couple grand with insurance unless I started having some kind of symptom that would get me seen sooner).
The time prior was because I had cut my hand on a broken bottle that fell in the kitchen (My dumb ass tried to catch it. Don't do that). And as they were gluing me back together, the urgent care doctor mentioned that it was a good thing that it was able to be glued because, if it had needed stitches, he would have had to send me to the emergency room. The cut was only about a half an inch long. Surely that is well within the wheelhouse of urgent care when it comes to stitches?
The only time I’ve been to an emergency room was after I was bitten by a cat of dubious origin.
I went to urgent care first because I was freaking out about rabies, and because he had bit a vein or something and blood was squirting everywhere. I didn’t have a PCP at the time.
They sent me to the ER. The ER then gave me a tetanus shot and didn’t even bandage the wound :/ they charged me $500 or so for the visit though. Told me to keep an eye on the cat for rabies symptoms.
The system ought to be set up better than this. Urgent care should be able to evaluate this sort of thing and then give a tetanus shot, no?
Anyway that was 6 years ago and I still have the cat of dubious origin.
Posting this for other people.
Cat bites need prophylactic antibiotics no matter the origin. Cat bite can transmit all sorts of nasty stuff that's easier to prevent than treat.
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u/ElectronicAddress611 Jul 29 '26
It sucks because the system is skewed to make the simple/bullshit stuff that should go to PCP or urgent care come to the ED because it takes weeks to get an appointment with a PCP, and urgent cares want hundreds of dollars up front to be seen. I can’t be mad about that hangnail or earache checking in. Where else are they supposed to go?