Having your child fall ill at an odd time of the day or night can be one of the most stressful occurrences to manage as a parent. At this juncture, you are probably debating on where to take your child for prompt treatment. High chances are that your regular pediatrician is closed for the day and is unavailable.

Parents are usually lost as to whether they should rush their children to a pediatric urgent care facility or the nearest emergency room.

It would be best if you determined which healthcare facility can handle your medical emergency appropriately before your pediatrician is available.

To do so, you will need to clearly distinguish what conditions should be handled in an emergency room and which ones qualify to be treated in a 24-hour pediatric urgent care facility near you.

What Is the Difference Between Emergency Care and Pediatric Urgent Care?

Each of these health care facilities is uniquely equipped to resolve your child’s medical emergency.

If your child’s medical emergency is non-life threatening and your regular pediatrician is currently unavailable, then you should visit your nearest children’s pediatric urgent care facility. These facilities are child-centered and are run by trained professionals who know how to diagnose and treat pediatric medical conditions.

However, if your child has a life-threatening condition, then you should probably rush them to a kids’ ER to ensure that your medical emergency is resolved as it should.

You should assess your child’s medical condition and choose which facility will be better placed to treat your child at that given time.

If you visit the ER, and your child’s medical condition is not life-threatening, then you will probably be benched at the triage as they handle the real emergency cases.

This will mean that you will have to wait for a long time before you get to see the doctor. On the other hand, if you visit a pediatric urgent care clinic with such a medical condition, you will get to see a doctor and be on your way home promptly.

What Medical Conditions Should Send You to a Pediatric Urgent Care Facility?

As we have previously ascertained, 24-hour pediatric urgent care clinics are equipped to handle non-life threatening medical conditions.

At our pediatric urgent care center, your child will be in the right hands of doctors and nurses who have specialized in treating children.

You should therefore undoubtedly visit our pediatric urgent care clinic if your pediatrician is unavailable and your child is exhibiting the following medical conditions

It is essential to understand that an urgent care facility will not and cannot take the place of your regular pediatrician. Your child should have regularly scheduled visits to the pediatrician to monitor their developmental milestones and have the proper vaccinations administered when necessary.

Your appointed pediatrician can also help you ascertain during after office hours whether you should visit an emergency care facility or an urgent care facility during your medical emergency.

If your child falls ill in the middle of the night or during the weekend, and your pediatrician is unavailable, you need not panic.

You can visit our child-focused pediatric urgent care facility and get your child’s medical emergency promptly resolved.

At Express ER (Abilene), we are equipped and trained to ensure your child’s medical emergency is accurately and promptly diagnosed and treated.