ER or Urgent Care for Broken Bones

Maybe you got injured while playing sports, or you accidentally fell over. Perhaps you got into a fight. People break bones every day, but what do you do with a broken bone? You know that you need medical attention, but can urgent care handle your broken bone, or do you need to go to the emergency room?

What to Consider

You will want to consider a few critical factors when deciding where to go for your broken bone.

Severity of the Broken Bone

The more severe a broken bone or fracture is, the more important it is to go to the emergency room. For less severe cases, urgent care is likely going to be okay.

The good news is that you don’t have to guess how severe your fracture or break is. There are five types of fractures, so figuring out which type you have will guide you.

• Stress fracture – This is a hairline fissure in the bones.
• Partial fracture – This is when the bone is cracked but isn’t completely broken.
• Open fracture – This is when the bone punctures through the skin.
• Complete fracture – This is when the bone has been shattered into at least two pieces.
• Closed fracture – This is when the bone does not puncture your skin.

Of the above, if you have a stress fracture, urgent care is typically an appropriate option. But if you have a complete fracture or an open fracture, you want to go to the emergency room. For the other types of fractures, consider the following factors:

Location of the Broken Bone

The location of the broken bone also significantly impacts where you should have it treated. Urgent care facilities are well-equipped to handle broken arms, legs and other extremities. These include hands, wrists, ankles and feet.

But if you break a weight-bearing bone, such as your pelvis or femur, you should go to the emergency room. You must visit the emergency room if the broken bone is your skull or spine. Rib, facial and lumbar fractures also require an ER visit.

Your Age – Older and Younger Patients Require the ER

Patients older or younger, meaning over 65 years old or under five years old, should always visit the ER. That is because these age groups have a higher risk of complications from broken bones.

Additional Injuries

You will also want to consider whether the broken bone was the only injury. If you have additional serious injuries, go to the emergency room. They will treat all of your injuries at once.

Which to Visit for Broken Bones?

You can go to an urgent care center if you are a healthy adult with a minor break on an extremity or non-weight-bearing bone. If the break is severe, you are older or younger, or you have other serious injuries, you should visit the emergency room.

Depending on the severity of the injury, you may be given a splint or cast. In the case of severe breaks, surgery may also be required.

Choose Bayhealth Total Care’s Emergency and Urgent Care Center to Treat Your Broken Bones

At Bayhealth Total Care’s Emergency and Urgent Care Center, our primary goal is to provide the residents of Sussex County with exceptional service and the proper billing for the care they need. Our combined emergency room and urgent care in Milton is fully equipped to handle everything from allergies to chest pain 24/7 with on-site labs, x-ray, ultrasound and CT.

Every patient at our ER and urgent care walk-in clinic is seen by an ER-trained physician at every visit, regardless of the level of care they need. Our approach makes care more affordable by avoiding the higher cost of the emergency room if patients only require urgent care services. Our ER and urgent care clinic is open 24/7.

Bayhealth Total Care’s Emergency and Urgent Care Center is located at 18383 Hudson Road, Milton, DE 19968.