Why Emergency Rooms Aren't Always the Best First Choice

Have you ever had a true life-threatening incident? A heart attack, stroke, severed limb? If you have, you know the value of emergency care.

Most people can honestly say they haven’t. Yet this doesn’t stop a significant part of the population from using the ER for non-life-threatening ailments.

Emergency rooms are designed for just that—emergencies. They have limited resources designed to stabilize patients at their worst. When the public uses emergency rooms in place of urgent care or their general practitioner, they are taking resources away from those who need them most.

There’s a reason ER visits are expensive—these specialized physicians focus on keeping people alive in the midst of various accidents and physical events. Treating a cold, minor injuries, or low-grade fevers aren’t what emergency rooms are designed to do.

So what should you do instead? Click this link to find a handy decision tree that can help you determine the right level of care for your concern. If it’s life-threatening, always go to the ER. But if it’s not life-threatening, other options are available to you that can cost you less out of pocket, but still get you the care you need and keep emergency resources available for those who need them most.

Let’s leave the emergency rooms to the real emergencies.

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