Urgent Care vs ER: Chest Pains
As far as visits to emergency rooms go, chest pains account for the majority of the visits to the emergency room according to the facts and figures available on the same. This is because most people freak out when they develop chest pains out of the clear blue sky and they therefore rush to the emergency room for attendance. This is no surprise given that chest pains are one of the key signs that one is having a heart attack, which, as we all know is a legitimate medical emergency that should be treated with the seriousness it deserves. One thing to keep in mind as far as chest pains are concerned is that, they do not always indicate that one is having a heart attack. It means that many cases of people with chest pains in the ER turn out be false alarms, and are cases that would have been dealt with satisfactorily at urgent care. It is therefore important to know when to head to urgent care and when to head to an ER as far as chest pains are concerned, something this article will look to go a long way in helping out.
Let’s start with the cases that should mean that the chest pain isn’t an emergency and as such a visit to urgent care will suffice for such cases. When making this decision about whether to go to urgent care or ER for chest pains, age plays a very big role. If you are a young person, say in your twenties, chest pains may not necessarily be a sign of a heart attack, and if they subside after a while, then you should at most head over to urgent care just be sure. If you are also experiencing chest pain that you have experienced before, one that had been ruled out as not being an emergency condition such as a heart attack, then you are well served to head over to urgent care for assistance. If you are experiencing chest pains, which go away or subside when you change your body position, then this may not be a medical emergency and as such a visit to urgent care will do. The same applies if the chest pain was brought about by you having come from a jog, running or some exercise. If you are having a moderate asthma attack, it can cause chest pains as well as difficulty breathing. This can be attended to in urgent care no problem, with frontlineer.com being the best place to visit on the same. Other cases which involve chest pains that can be attended to in urgent care, ones that are not medical emergencies include, heartburn, panic attacks, shingles among others.
As far as ERs are concerned, if you are experiencing chest pains you’ve never experienced before, you should head over to the ER as soon as possible. The same applies if the chest pains are accompanied by nausea, dizziness as well as extreme weakness. This is because these are signs of a heart attack and as such one shouldn’t waste any time as the more time passes with the heart attack going unattended to, the more damage is done to your heart muscles. Other signs that accompany chest pains, those that are indicative of a heart attack and that require an immediate visit to an ER include numbness, discomfort and pain in the back, arms, jaw, neck and abdominal area especially upper stomach. If you experience chest pains and have a family history of heart attacks, or even a personal history of the same, you should visit an emergency room pronto, and not urgent care. As discussed above, age is another factor to consider and that is why if you are over the age of 55 and have chest pains you are advised to head over to an ER. If you experience chest pains and have high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol or you are a smoker, you should visit an ER as well.
The reason why chest pains related to heart attacks should be treated at ERs and not urgent care is because of the facilities available at the former for dealing with the same that are not available at the later. This includes facilities for doing an Electrocardiogram (ECG) that determines if one is really having a heart attack or not, as done over at frontlineer.com, the best place to visit on the same, heart attack blood testing facilities, facilities for administering oxygen and nitroglycerin, blood thinners, clot-buster drugs such as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), as well as morphine for pain relieve. Procedures like cardiac catheterization and coronary artery bypass graft can also only be performed in the ER, making it important to head there and not urgent care for chest pains that indicate heart attacks.
Bottom line is, if you are suffering from chest pains, unless you are sure that it is not serious, you should head over to an ER not urgent care. Chest pains should always be treated as an emergency since the repercussions are severe if taken lightly, with frontlineer.com being the best place to visit for such services.
