Where To Go: Urgent Care or Emergency?

Where Can You Go?

It's 9pm. Student Health is closed, and you're cold is getting worse. Where do you go?

Urgent care is a cross between an emergency room and a doctor's office. It costs much less to go to urgent care than the emergency room, so make sure that if your symptoms aren't too bad, you avoid using the emergency room.

Here's a quick list to help you decide which is the best place for you to go:

Emergency Room or Call 911:

• Chest pain with shortness of breath and/ or sweating
• Difficulty breathing
• Uncontrollable bleeding
• Trauma or head injury
• Sever injury, burns, or electrical shock
• Sudden dizziness, difficulty seeing, slurred speech, confusion, numbness, or paralysis
• Unconsciousness
• Poisoning
• Vaginal bleeding during pregnancy

Urgent Care:

• sore throats, coughs, congestion, fever less than 103 degrees, and other flu/ cold symptoms
• Mild or moderate asthma attacks
• Earaches and minor skin infections*
• Insect bites or rashes
• Bladder infections
• Sprains, strains, deep bruises
• Diarrhea*
• Pregnancy tests and physical exams

* If these symptoms seem severe, consider them an emergency

Information provided by hopehealth.com

UC San Diego Medical Center has both an emergency room and urgent care.

Both are located at 9300 Campus Point Drive

WHAT TO DO AFTER HOURS: New Free Nurse Advice Line

The UCSD Student Health Service is excited to announce the NEW After Hours Nurse Advice Line. Whenever the Student Health Service is closed, you can call our regular telephone number at 858-534-3300 and select the option for “after hours advice” to be connected with a CareNet registered nurse who will assist you in obtaining the appropriate care for your condition.