How to Know Where to Go for Health Care Emergencies
Medical emergencies are unpredictable. One can never know that what would happen to him in the next second. Medical health emergencies are generally regarded as those phenomena that drastically affect one’s body, either for a long or short period. There are many types of emergencies:
Predictable Non-Fatal Emergencies
These are the types of emergencies that a patient is familiar with. He knows that these things happen to almost every person, and he even knows the reason behind it too. For example, a man forgot to wear his sweaters in winter on his way back home, and the next day he could not go to the office because he caught a cold. Now, this situation is pronounced. That man knew that he was careless, and he did not wear his sweater and eventually caught cold. In these types of emergencies, a person is usually very calm. He knows what to do. That man would take a day off from work, rest in his home, take the prescribed medicine, and will drink soup. On the next day, he would be as fresh as a daisy.
Predictable Fatal Emergencies
These are also the types of emergencies with which a patient is usually familiar. Familiar in the sense that he does not lose his senses in panic. He knows where to go and what to do in these circumstances. For example, a person is a cardiac patient for almost five years. One day in the morning, he feels the sensation of tightening and pain on the left side of his chest. He predicts that something is wrong, and if he did not do something for it in time, he might lose his life. He would ask his family members to take him to the hospital or emergency room if he has a family. Otherwise, he would call an ambulance for himself.
Unpredictable Non-Fatal Emergencies
These are the types of emergencies with which a person is not familiar. It means that he does not know what to do in such circumstances. There is a chance that in these types of cases, a person may cause panic as well. For example, a child fell off from the swing and broke his leg. His parents would be in a panic because they do not know what to do.
Moreover, the child is continuously crying because of pain. His parents would immediately take him to the nearby hospital. At least the parents have the assurity that this is not a fatal emergency and the child would not die.
Unpredictable Fatal Emergencies
Now, this is one of the most nerve-wrenching emergencies. That is the situation with which a person is not familiar, and it is also risking the patient’s life. For example, a person just had his dinner, and after five minutes, he vomited. There was blood in his vomiting. Now that is a concerning situation, and people around him are in a great panic because they are not sure where to go.
How To Decide Where To Go
This decision should always be taken by keeping the type of emergency under consideration. It all depends on the severity of the emergency that one is dealing with. Other things that add up in taking this decision are the place they live ( either there is some medical healthcare center nearby or not) , the time of the day, and sometimes the budget.
Severity Of Emergency
- Suppose the patient has a cold, flu, coughing, tooth pain, stomach ache, low or high blood pressure, low or high blood sugar count, headache or similar minor symptoms (they can be included in predictable non-fatal emergencies). In this case, it is better to visit the family doctor or the doctor that comes in his primary care.
- If that coughing or toothache, stomach ache or all those minor symptoms are still there and the patient’s condition is getting worse, then it is preferred that he should go to the nearby urgent care center. Over there, he would have all his blood tests done, and then if the disease diagnosed can be treated in urgent care, then he is in the right place.
- Firstly, If there is any case of an unpredictable emergency in which the patient is not sure that the emergency is fatal or not, he should not take the risk and rush towards the nearby emergency room. For instance, a person slipped and fell. However, his head got hurt by the corner of the table during felling. First, he should go to the urgent care center for the bandage, and then he should go to the emergency room to get his CT scan done to confirm that there is no internal bleeding or damage. Secondly, If there is a case of unpredictable or predictable fatal emergency, for example, if one fees the symptoms of COVID among his body, the patient without any second thought should rush towards the emergency room because no risk should be taken in the case of any health emergency that is fatal.
Place
- In predictable non-fatal emergencies, the patients can wait no matter how painful the condition is. It is recommended that one should go to primary health care or urgent care center in these types of cases.
- In the cases of fatal ( predictable and unpredictable) and unpredictable non-fatal emergencies, if there is an urgent care center nearby, the patient must rush towards it first. The staff would give him the necessary treatment to manage to reach the emergency room without any complications. If the emergency room is nearby, then going for it would be the best option.
Time
- If the patient has a minor health emergency during the weekdays, primary care is the best option. However, urgent care would be the best option if he is having the same emergency on weekends( in between 9-5) because primary care is usually not available on weekends.
- Suppose the patient has a minor or acute emergency after 9 pm. In that case, he should go to the emergency room because that service is available 24 hours during whole week including weekends as well.
Budget
- If the patient has a predictable non-fatal emergency, he should keep primary care his first and urgent care his second option due to the low costs.
- If the patient is having unpredictable or any fatal emergency, then it is suggested that he should take his tests and initial treatments in the emergency room and afterward if he feels that he is stable enough and the treatment he is taking can be continued in urgent care, he should get discharged from the emergency room and go to urgent care. This step would help him to get a comparatively low bill.