Those nasty seasonal symptoms are back: sneezing, coughing, sore throat. So if you’re coming down with a respiratory virus, should you head first to urgent care, your family doctor or a virtual visit?
Those are your easiest, most convention options. And their care teams are well-equipped to offer all the treatment you’ll need. The emergency room? ERs are designed to treat more serious cases. Going there with flu, RSV or COVID-19 symptoms can burden crowded hospitals, says Courtney Cortés, director of nursing and emergency services at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center.
And don’t forget, you can still sign up for free COVID tests to take at home. And should an illness strike, Novant Health offers several options for treatment.
“With an on-demand virtual visit, you can talk to someone at midnight about a health concern, and they can advise you on whether to go to the ER or follow up the next day with your primary care provider,” Cortés said. “That peace of mind is everything.”
Find walk-in clinic and urgent care options near you.
When should you consider making a trip to the ER?
It should be for life-threatening and urgent situations: injuries, severe chest pain, severe shortness of breath, concerns for stroke, high fever. People who are immunocompromised, such as cancer patients, and who are experiencing severe symptoms or pain should go to the emergency room.
If you feel that you need to come to the ER, please come. Novant Health does not discourage patients who think they need that level of care, Cortes said. But if you’re coming in with a cold or something that would be a minor visit, consider instead going to your primary care doctor or visiting urgent care or walk-in clinics with no appointment needed. Each option offers a shorter wait time, and you will get in and out more quickly.
Going to the ER does not guarantee being seen right away, does it?
No. The emergency room team treats patients based on severity. Patients with chest pain, serious injuries or other life-threatening conditions will be seen first.
Novant Health offers virtual visits and GoHealth Urgent Care.
For non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries, patients can go online through MyChart to schedule a virtual visit with a health care clinician.
Many conditions can be diagnosed on-demand, including flu and COVID-19 symptoms. GoHealth Urgent Care centers offer same-day services in the Charlotte and Winston-Salem regions.
Dr. Rashmi Saincher of Novant Health Lewisville Family Medicine explains when urgent care or an on-demand video visit is right for you.
In general, how should someone decide where to go first?
Having difficulty breathing is the biggest red flag. At that point I would suggest going to the emergency room. Otherwise, you can always visit walk-in and urgent care sites. It is often helpful for the provider to do a more thorough examination or chest X-ray, especially when it comes to listening to your lungs. One of the biggest things that RSV can cause is pneumonia, which is a bad chest infection.
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I had a nursing student visit me who thought she had caught a bad cold. At that time she looked OK, but over the next couple of days her fever kept climbing higher and higher. Her energy level was going down and she was coughing a lot more. And those are pretty big signs that it’s no longer just a cold and could be something like RSV or pneumonia.
When it comes to viral infections, treatment can be frustrating. It’s not like a bacterial infection where I give you an antibiotic and you start feeling better within a couple of hours. So don’t get too surprised if the provider tells you that you’ve tested positive for RSV and doesn’t give you an antibiotic. That’s because an antibiotic is meant for bacterial infections; it cannot help in the case of a virus.
Are there times where a patient chooses a virtual visit when in fact their condition requires more immediate care?
While primary care offices can offer virtual visits, doctors often encourage patients to come in-person for an evaluation if they are experiencing respiratory symptoms such as coughing or wheezing. A thorough examination often helps guide clinicians to the correct diagnosis and management that otherwise cannot be made on a virtual visit.
Primary care offices within Novant Health often provide same-day appointments for patients to get care for acute needs. If you don’t see any open appointments online, call and check to see if they can accommodate you. Otherwise, urgent care functions like a mini-emergency department in many ways, offering immediate blood work, chest X-rays and thorough examinations. This is helpful because ERs everywhere often have really long wait times versus urgent care, where you’re seen a lot faster.
Do you need primary, urgent or emergency care? This one-page guide can help.
