Doctors Alexis Perera, Urgent Care Physician at Baptist Health and Jose Llach, Medical Director of Free standing ED at Baptist Health explain the differences between Emergency and Urgency.

Although people can get confused about Emergency and Urgency, both are similar in posing a health risk. When an emergency happens, it’s a life threatening eventful, the person is about to die or has serious consequences. Urgency means the person needs immediate treatment because he can’t get to his primary care physician, says Dr. Perera.

Urgent care, according to Dr. Llach, is for simple lacerations, common colds, urinary tract infections, meanwhile, the ER is for more serious things like chest pains, shortness of breath or somebody pregnant with abdominal pain. However, sometimes the emergency room has medical equipment that the urgent care does not have.