Is a walk in clinic the same as the ER? The short answer is no, a walk in clinic and an emergency room (ER) are not the same.
Knowing the details of the differences between a walk in clinic and ER can help ensure you get the care you need at the best place for your situation. Read on to learn about the top four.
In general, walk in clinics can treat a variety of minor and non-emergent conditions. They often have access to some basic X-ray/imaging and lab technicians to help diagnose and treat minor injuries and illnesses, but they are not designed to manage conditions that require rapid or advanced treatments.
Examples of conditions walk in clinics treat include:
Emergency rooms are equipped and designed to treat patients with emergent, severe, life-threatening, or complex illnesses or injuries. These conditions often require fast or advanced treatments that are only available in a hospital setting (like surgery) and access to a greater variety of providers, technology, and other services.
Examples of severe conditions an ER can treat include:
At both walk in clinics and ERs you can just go whenever you need care. However, you can expect to spend much less time at a walk in clinic.
Walk In clinics:
Emergency rooms:
Typically, patients can expect to spend several hours in an ER while walk in clinics often try to get patients treated and on their way home in 60 minutes or less.
How much you pay at an ER or walk in clinic depends on your specific condition, as well as your health insurance coverage. However, with the average cost of an ER visit sitting around $1,150, you can expect to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for services and treatment received at an emergency room.
Walk in clinics are more cost-effective. In fact, the average cost of a walk in visit is around $100 to $150. Some patients only have to pay a copay, and even if you don’t have health insurance, you’ll find walk in clinics usually have lower copays than what you’d pay at an ER.
Emergency rooms are meant to treat patients and send them home (or admit them to the hospital if necessary). In most cases, patients are not going to an emergency room for any other reason. However, one benefit to walk in clinics is that they offer a variety of other services that can be beneficial to you and your health.
For example, walk in clinics may provide the following:
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