Why Orthopaedics urgent care is your best bet for treating everyday injuries fast, effectively

What's an orthopaedic urgent care, and how is it different from the ER?

Whether from playing sports, falling the wrong way, or another type of accident, orthopaedic injuries can happen in the blink of an eye.

If you or a loved one has suffered an orthopaedic injury, you want to receive care just as fast.

The question then is where to seek that care? While you could head to the emergency room, there are other, faster options.

Rothman Orthopaedic Institute offers the is highly regarded as the best orthopaedic urgent care in the Delaware Valley. Here's what you can expect when you come into one of our facilities.

Orthopaedic Care in the Emergency Room Versus an Orthopaedic Urgent Care Clinic

If you've ever visited the emergency room, you know you could wait several hours to be seen.

This is because emergency rooms use a triage system, where patients who are in more serious condition are treated first.

While this helps to guarantee that patients who are in serious danger of death or permanent disability are cared for in a timely manner, those with injuries and illnesses that are non-life threatening often wait for hours just to be seen by a physician.

While some orthopaedic injuries can fall into this category, the majority are non-life-threatening, so you may be waiting a while.

By contrast, an orthopaedic urgent care clinic will likely be able to see you immediately.

These clinics specialize only in musculoskeletal care, so doctors are able to focus specifically on your problem, without the need to triage life-threatening illnesses or injuries.

This means your care is not delayed, and you don't waste time sitting for hours in a waiting room.

Specialization

When you visit an emergency room, your care is provided by a general physician who handles emergency medicine.

This individual likely has no specialized training in treatment for orthopedic injuries and may have more trouble diagnosing complicated or nuanced bone, joint, and ligament problems.

In most cases, the doctor will do a basic exam and x-ray, apply a splint, and give you a referral for an orthopaedist.

By contrast, when you visit a Rothman Orthopaedic Urgent Care Clinic, you receive immediate care from one of our expert orthopaedic specialists.

With four orthopaedic-only urgent care facilities (Abington and Limerick in Pa., and Hamilton and Marlton in N.J.) and one walk-in clinic (Center City), Rothman specialists are able to provide the most accurate diagnosis of your orthopedic injury and start the appropriate treatment program immediately.

Streamlined Expertise

An emergency room is an excellent option for general emergency health care.

Doctors are practiced in caring for a variety of illnesses and begin a course of treatment before either admitting the patient to the hospital or discharging them to seek follow-up treatment elsewhere.

While these doctors are great at doing the basics for all sorts of treatments, they are not specialists focused on any given patient's specific injury or illness.

This means that they can provide limited options for treatment. The busy nature of an emergency room also means that your physician may be treating a dozen patients and have little opportunity to spend focusing on the details of and options for your treatment.

Orthopaedic urgent care centers, however, are staffed only with experts who specialize in bone, ligament, joint, and cartilage care.

Physicians at these centers can not only spend more time and focus on your individual injury, but their expertise also allows them to educate you about your condition, and all of your options going forward.

After you seek treatment at an orthopaedic urgent care clinic, you can continue treatment with the same medical group, meaning no confusion about records and history.

This also means that the doctor who provided your primary care is working with other physicians on your care team to diagnose, educate you on, and treat the issue that originally brought you in.

Rothman Orthopaedics has urgent care clinics throughout the Philadelphia Region with various hours. For more information, please visit us here or contact us at 1-800-321-9999.