Choosing Between an Orthopedic Walk-In Clinic and the ER

With every orthopedic emergency – from sprained ankles to broken fingers to arthritis flareups – there arises an urgent question: Where should you go for immediate help?

Your thoughts may quickly turn to the nearest emergency room, something that happens nearly 140 million times each year in the U.S. If not the emergency room, you may opt for an urgent care facility. And while you’re able to get help from either of those options, you should also consider the advantages of an orthopedic walk-in clinic.

Particularly in the case of a simple fracture, sprain or strain you got while playing basketball or tennis, an initial trip to an orthopedic clinic may get you on the road to healing faster than other options.

Orthopedic Walk-in Clinic Advantages

Orthopedic walk-in clinics offer something you can’t find with urgent care and emergency rooms: professionals specifically trained in diagnosing and treating injuries and diseases that affect your bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints.

If you hurt your ankle while playing soccer, the sooner you get to a specialist, the sooner you can begin your treatment. Certainly, the emergency room or urgent care can provide pain relief, X-rays and get you going in the right direction. But often, you’ll leave that facility with instructions to see an orthopedic specialist.

An orthopedic walk-in clinic can remove that middle stop. An orthopedic nurse practitioner or physician assistant will perform a focused exam to assess your condition or injury. If baseline X-rays aren’t enough to fully assess your condition, they can order an MRI or CT scan to get you more quickly on the right path.

If you need a brace, cast or medication, that can be handled during your visit. They can also make a specialist referral, if necessary, before you leave the office.

These advantages go beyond acute sports injuries. With an arthritis flareup, for example, the clinic can help with injections and other treatment options on the spot.

Emergency Room

For more severe injuries or conditions, you’ll be better served by heading straight to the  emergency room, where the physicians and nurses are ready to handle anything that could potentially be life-threatening. Consider the ER if you:

• Have trauma to multiple bones/joints, open fractures
• Lose consciousness or pass out as a result of your injury
• Are having difficulty breathing
• Have vision problems, including double vision
• Are experiencing slurred speech
• Feel chest pain or other heart attack symptoms
• Have severe abdominal pain
• Are experiencing bleeding that won’t stop
• Have experienced a severe head injury
• Suffer a stroke or have an inability to move
• Have a particularly large or deep cut that will require stitches
• Have burn wounds with blisters
• Experience a seizure
• Have been poisoned
• Have severe weakness

Urgent Care

For lesser injuries or conditions with milder symptoms, you’ll likely get all the help you need with an urgent care facility. These are great places to visit if you can’t get into your primary care physician and don’t need the full services of an emergency room, where you may face a lengthy wait. This is also a less-expensive way to receive medical care. Among the ailments treated at urgent cares are:

• Coughs, colds and sore throats
• Earaches
• Sinus infection
• Fever or flu-like symptoms
• Minor cut or burns
• Non-life-threatening allergic reactions
• Mild asthma
• Minor animal bites
• Minor infections

In many cases, your choice may be limited by the severity of your injury or condition. But if it falls in the realm of orthopedic medicine, you will be doing yourself a favor by getting to a specialist as soon as possible.