When you have an acute healthcare concern, the last thing you need is confusion around where to go for help. Although many people instinctively go to urgent care or the emergency room, your primary care office is often the best place to start before seeking further care.
Tryon Medical Partners internal medicine specialist Dr. Wilder shares some memorable tips to make sure the next time you’re dealing with a medical issue, you know exactly where to go.
What is a simple way to remember when to go to primary care?
Dr. Wilder emphasizes that, for most illnesses, you’ll want to start by visiting your primary care office. Almost all ailments can be addressed best in a primary care setting. If you run into a scheduling obstacle and struggle to find availability, Dr. Wilder has a pro tip: “I don’t think patients realize that we can squeeze them in if they have an urgent problem. If you look at my availability online, I’m booked out for a few weeks, but if one of my patients has a UTI, of course I’ll try to fit them into my schedule. Even if I can’t see them, one of my partners will be happy to see them.”
There are quite a few advantages to starting with your primary care office:
- They are already experts on you. The beauty of seeing your primary care clinician is they already know you and your history. This includes your past infections, any allergies, and how this new health problem fits into your overall medical story.
- There is less of a wait time. Because people rarely have appointments, there are often longer wait times at urgent care and the emergency room. For this reason, making an appointment with your primary care provider can be more efficient and you’ll spend less time waiting around to be seen. Tryon has same-day/next-day appointment availability, including virtual care, for illnesses and other urgent health needs. Call or MedChat to schedule.
- Often, primary care is less costly than other options. Urgent care and emergency room visits are covered differently by insurance and can be quite costly. Comparatively, primary care visits are likely to be less expensive.
- Primary care can help you figure out where to seek care. If you aren’t sure how urgent your healthcare situation is, it still makes sense to start with your primary care office. At Tryon Medical Partners, you can use MedChat to make an appointment or call the nurse triage line to speak with someone who can advise you on the next best steps.
“If you have a medical concern that can wait a few hours, you can send a portal message and your physician’s staff will get back to you typically within 24 hours,” Dr. Wilder notes. “For any urgent items, calling is better. People go to urgent care more than they should instead of calling the primary care office and letting us know they need to be seen. There are many ways for us to make that happen.”
What about when to go to urgent care?
Dr. Wilder does caution that there are two situations in which urgent care is the place to go:
- Cuts that need stitches. Although sometimes a primary care office can do stitches, urgent care is much better equipped and practiced in handling this type of situation. Dr. Wilder’s advice: if the cut looks deep and is bleeding heavily, proceed to urgent care.
- Urgent situation that happens when the primary care office is closed. Aside from stitches, it makes sense to go to urgent care if you have a time-sensitive medical need and the primary care office is closed (on a weekend or a holiday, for instance). Especially if you are in pain or discomfort, it’s worth getting it taken care of. Additionally, if you’re experiencing the following symptoms, you shouldn’t wait to get checked out:
- Inability to stay hydrated
- Inability to swallow
- Intolerable pain
- Uncontrollable fever
“It’s not worth suffering through discomfort to wait until you can see your doctor,” Dr. Wilder advises. “That is a situation in which urgent care makes a lot of sense.”
Dr. Wilder frequently gets these questions about urgent care vs. primary care:
Urgent care or primary care for stitches?
Urgent care is a great place to go if you think you need stitches. However, most primary care offices will be happy to remove stitches or staples when the time comes. This will spare you a trip back to urgent care or the emergency room.
Urgent care or primary care for X-rays?
While urgent care, especially orthopedic urgent care, is definitely an option for getting X-rays, your primary care office can also provide a consultation and then refer you to get your X-rays once they have a better idea of what the problem is.
Urgent care or primary care for blood work?
While it’s possible that some urgent care settings do blood work, Dr. Wilder recommends starting at your primary care office. At Tryon Medical Partners, most of the blood work is completed at the time of the appointment. If a patient prefers extended hours in the evening and on weekends, Tryon works with LabCorp to complete any additional blood work.
“It’s best to start with your primary care provider for blood work,” Dr. Wilder guides. “We want to make sure the correct labs are being ordered and someone will be able to explain and act on the lab results appropriately once they’re completed. You’ll want the results in the hands of someone you trust to help you decide what to do next.”
What about when to go to the emergency room (ER)?
Dr. Wilder recommends saving the emergency room for life-threatening situations. If you’re experiencing any of the following, proceeding to the emergency room makes sense:
- Stroke-like symptoms
- Numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg
- Confusion or trouble speaking or understanding speech
- Trouble seeing in one or both eyes
- Trouble walking, dizziness, or problems with balance
- Severe headache with no known cause
- Heart attack symptoms
- Chest pain that may feel like pressure, tightness, pain, squeezing, or aching
- Pain or discomfort that spreads to the shoulder, arm, back, neck, jaw, teeth, or sometimes the upper belly
- Cold sweat
- Fatigue
- Heartburn or indigestion
- Lightheadedness or sudden dizziness
- Nausea
- Inability to stay hydrated
- Heavy bleeding
- Severe injury (such as after an accident)
“If you’re experiencing any of those,” Dr. Wilder advises, “it’s best to address them within hours, not days.”
If you want to learn more about which treatment setting to go to for a healthcare concern, call Tryon Medical Partners today.
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