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The advent of more urgent care centers has been a boon for busy hospital emergency rooms and patients. It relieves the emergency room from seeing less-than-serious conditions and provides patients with more timely diagnosis and treatment. The question remains: When to go to your primary care physician, an urgent care center, or the emergency room?
What Are The Real Differences?
The main differences between Primary Care, Urgent Care, and an ER involve the services provided, the wait time, and the cost.
If you are ill, consider these three before you decide where to go. Of course, the most important one is the services. Are you critical? Are you in severe pain? Are your symptoms life-threatening? The answers to those questions should determine your decision. Let’s get more specific.
Main Purposes of Primary Care
Your primary care physician (PCP) is the person who oversees your general health. You come to rely on and trust them. Unless you move away or your insurance changes, most adults remain with their primary care provider.
Your PCP gets to know you and monitors your general health. They diagnose and treat your illnesses, provide vaccines, and coordinate specialist referrals.
They care for anything, including sprains, pulled muscles, sore throats, flu, chronic diseases like diabetes, and sinus infections.
Your primary care physician can handle all concerns that are not emergencies or need immediate care. Visiting the same doctor for all your medical needs gives them a better picture of your health, which equates to a consistent and stable level of care.
What Is A True Emergency?
The purpose of a hospital emergency room is to save lives. With the increase in urgent care facilities, only the severe cases should go to an ER unless you have no choice. Many Americans visit the emergency room, and many of those visits are unnecessary. The CDC tells us that 30% of ER visits are non-urgent.
You will be triaged at a hospital ER, meaning a nurse will determine the urgency. That will dictate how long you will wait.
If you are having a heart attack or a stroke, you must get immediate care, so call 911 or go directly to an ER.
Some other situations that necessitate an ER visit include seizures, a high fever that won’t break, injury to the neck or spine, poisoning, head injury, a deep wound, drug overdose, burns, electric shock, bleeding that won’t stop, broken bone with punctured skin, vomiting blood, unconsciousness, severe allergic reaction, breathing problems.
The following include some instances where a visit to the ER is critical:
1. Chest pain
2. Trouble breathing or speaking.
3. Paralysis
4. New onset confusion
5. Head or back injuries
6. Consistent bleeding or vomiting
7. Loss of consciousness
8. Sudden, severe pain, such as a headache or stomach ache
9. Choking
10. Poisoning
11. Major burns and cuts
12. Broken bones
13. Any injury that is limb or life-threatening
Express Care Visits
A visit to an express care location in Corinth is recommended when you cannot get an appointment with your family doctor and your symptoms are non-life-threatening. Express care centers offer extended hours and provide more immediate care.
Occasions and symptoms include fever and colds, cough and sore throat, cuts that require stitches, earaches, UTI, diarrhea and stomach pain, flu symptoms, minor burns, dehydration, sprains and strains, small cuts, a mild asthma attack, animal bites, plus others.
If the urgent care provider thinks your symptoms are more serious, they will direct you to the ER.
If you, or someone you love, is ill or has a minor injury, don’t wait in an emergency room for hours.
Deciding Where to Go
If you are experiencing symptoms and need care, contact your primary care provider first. If you need more immediate care and cannot visit your primary care provider, a visit to urgent care may be a great option. If you are experiencing a life-threatening situation or are experiencing any of the more severe symptoms listed above, visit the ER.
If you’ve ever had a kidney stone, you are not alone. One in 10 Americans will have one in their lifetime. Most stones pass on their own, but when they don’t, you may need treatment, such as lithotripsy for kidney stones.
Kidney Stone Basics
Kidney stones are hard objects made of calcium and other chemicals found in the blood. Normally, your urine contains dissolved minerals and salts, but sometimes, those minerals build up and can crystallize, forming stones.
Those stones start out tiny, but in some cases can grow quite large, making it difficult for them to pass through your urine. There are multiple types of kidney stones, varying by the minerals they contain. Calcium stones are the most common, accounting for around 80% of kidney stones.
In some cases, small kidney stones won’t cause any symptoms and they’ll pass through the body on their own. As stones get larger, though, they’re more likely to cause symptoms, which may include:
- An intense need to urinate
- Blood in the urine
- Burning sensation when urinating
- More frequent urination
- Nausea and vomiting
A common cause of kidney stones is low urine volume caused by dehydration. Diet can also play a role, and medical providers may recommend a different diet if you experience kidney stones more than once.
If you are obese, have a medical condition affecting the parathyroid gland or have certain bowel conditions, you may also be at a higher risk of developing kidney stones.
How to Treat Kidney Stones
If you’re experiencing symptoms that may be related to a kidney stone, your medical provider will likely order an ultrasound or a CT scan.
In many cases, kidney stones require no treatment. Your provider may recommend simply waiting to see if the stone passes on its own, particularly if your pain is manageable. You may be given a medication designed to relax the ureter and allow the stone to pass through.
If the stone is large, if it’s interfering with kidney function, or if you’re experiencing pain and other symptoms, your provider may recommend surgical intervention. There are many types of surgery to remove kidney stones, but extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is the most common.
During a lithotripsy procedure, a surgeon sends shock waves to the kidney stone. The surgeon uses X-ray or ultrasound to ensure precise targeting of the stone, and as the waves bombard the stone, it breaks into fragments. This allows passing stone fragments to travel out of the body through urine, which may take weeks. You may be given a small strainer to catch those fragments when urinating so that they can be tested to determine the type of kidney stone.
Surgeons often use general anesthesia during lithotripsy since the shock waves can cause mild discomfort. Patients are usually discharged from the hospital on the same day as the procedure and can resume normal activity within a few days.
When you need a surgical procedure, Magnolia Regional Health Center has you covered with a full spectrum of surgical services.
Looking for physical activity that is easy on your joints and good for your heart? You might want to try swimming.
Swimming as exercise is a full body workout that also strengthens the heart muscle over time. Swimming also offers many other health benefits, since it burns a lot of calories, helps you sleep better, improves breathing and circulation, lowers blood pressure, helps manage stress, and boosts your mood. Plus, swimming is a workout that can be tailored to nearly anyone, regardless of health status or age.
Swimming and the Joints
If you regularly experience knee pain or pain related to other joints in the body, you may wonder how you can get the exercise you need. When you have joint pain, it’s often related to some type of arthritis, which causes inflammation around the joints.
While exercise might be the last thing on your mind when you have arthritis, regular exercise can help limit your discomfort. The trick is to find an activity that gets your heart pumping and your muscles working but is also gentle on your joints.
Swimming can be the right exercise. Swimming has been shown to improve joint flexibility, limit stiffness, and improve mobility in those who have arthritis and similar conditions.
Exercising in water, as you do when swimming laps or doing other swim workouts like water aerobics, is joint-friendly because the water reduces the amount of stress on the joints. With the buoyancy of the water to support your body, you’re also able to get a better range of motion and move your legs and arms more easily.
Is Swimming a Good Option for Me?
Swimming can be a viable workout for nearly anyone. In addition to being a good option for those who have arthritis, water workouts can also be beneficial if you:
- Are recovering from an injury
- Have a chronic condition, such as multiple sclerosis, that causes disability
- Live with asthma or other lung health issues
If you have a heart health issue or you’re recovering from a coronary bypass or other heart procedure, you may also reap the benefits of swimming. Exercising is important to keep the heart healthy, but if you have a cardiovascular condition, it requires a careful and steady approach. Swimming can be a great option.
With swimming and other water workouts, you can easily modify the routine to lower the intensity when needed. During a swim, you get a good cardiovascular, full-body workout, which helps the heart recover and strengthen. If you’re recovering after a heart procedure or aren’t sure whether swimming is a safe choice for you, talk with your medical provider before diving in.
Have a surgical procedure planned for the near future? Learn why it’s important to make sure your heart is healthy as you prepare.
You’re in your early 40s and have persistent hip pain. An orthopaedic specialist thinks you may need a hip replacement. But when it comes to total hip replacement surgery, how young is too young?
In the past, procedures like hip and knee replacements were often not considered options for younger patients. But that’s changing.
Why Total Hip Replacement Might Be Needed
Physicians typically recommend total hip replacement surgery when you’re experiencing intense, severe pain and hip stiffness that isn’t relieved by less-invasive treatment options. While osteoarthritis is the most frequent cause of this type of hip discomfort, you may need a hip joint replacement due to injury or bone-related diseases.
All causes of hip damage are more common among those in middle age and beyond, but they can also affect younger adults. Some begin to experience the effects of arthritis in their 20s and 30s, and others experience hip pain and diminished mobility due to other factors, such as a sports-related hip injury.
What Happens During Total Hip Replacement
If you’re experiencing recurrent hip pain, talk with your provider about how those symptoms affect your daily life. In most cases, your provider will recommend noninvasive treatment options, such as physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications or steroidal injections.
If other treatment options don’t provide relief, you may need surgery no matter how old you are. Hip replacement surgeries can include partial hip replacement, hip resurfacing and total hip replacement. Of those, total hip replacement is the most common.
During the procedure, which is also called total hip arthroplasty, a surgeon removes sections of the pelvis and thigh bone, including the ball and the socket of the hip. This joint is replaced with an artificial joint.
Can You Be Too Young for Hip Replacement?
While a provider may recommend less-invasive treatment options for younger patients, particularly at first, surgeons can perform a total hip replacement on patients of all ages when needed.
The procedure remains most common among adults age 60 and older, but the number of younger patients having hip replacement has been steadily increasing due to the improved safety and efficacy of artificial joints, among other reasons.
The artificial joint used in total hip replacement can last for 20 years or more, making it a viable option for younger adults. When and if the artificial joint needs to be replaced, patients do not need a full hip replacement procedure. A more simplified revision surgery can be used to change out the artificial joint.
Recovery after total hip replacement has also improved in recent decades. In many cases, patients can be released from the hospital on the same day as the hip replacement. After surgery, working with a physical therapist helps patients quickly regain their abilities to move normally, and most patients are on their feet and functioning without an assistive device in just a few weeks.
When you’re in need of specialized treatment for an orthopaedic health condition, Magnolia Regional Health Center’s Orthopaedic Center of Excellence is here to help.
Millions of American women experience uterine fibroids at some point before age 50. Although fibroids don’t always cause symptoms, these uterine growths can cause some women a great deal of discomfort. If you’re one of them, you may be relieved to know that you may not have to deal with uterine fibroids after menopause.
Making Sense of Uterine Fibroids
Uterine fibroids are muscular growths that appear on the wall of the uterus. They are benign, or noncancerous, in nearly all cases.
These growths are very common among women in their 30s and 40s, and up to 80% of women will experience at least one uterine fibroid by age 50. Fibroids can range in size very small (about the size of a seed) to very large—they can even grow over time. A woman may have a single fibroid or clusters of fibroids inside or outside her uterus.
While uterine fibroids can occur in any woman, some women are at an increased risk for fibroids, including those who are obese and those who have a family history of fibroids. Black women are at a particularly high risk and may experience fibroids at a younger age than other women.
Fibroids do not always cause symptoms, but when symptoms do occur, they include:
- A feeling of fullness in your abdomen
- Infertility
- Issues with your period, including cramps, heavy bleeding, longer periods and bleeding between periods
- Low back pain
- Painful sex
- Using the bathroom more frequently or having problems urinating, due to pressure from fibroids
How Menopause Affects Uterine Fibroids
Researchers aren’t entirely sure what causes uterine fibroids, but they appear to be impacted by hormone levels, growing during periods when estrogen and progesterone levels are high, as they are during pregnancy, and shrinking when levels decrease.
Similarly, when a woman enters menopause and the ovaries stop producing estrogen and progesterone, fibroids may stop growing and begin to shrink because of the decrease in the production these hormones. As a result, you are less likely to notice symptoms of uterine fibroids during menopause even if uterine fibroids are present during this time of life.
It is very rare for uterine fibroids to continue to grow after menopause. If you continue to experience symptoms indicative of uterine fibroids after menopause, which are the same as the uterine fibroid symptoms you would experience at any age, talk to your OB/GYN or another medical provider. In many cases, those symptoms in postmenopausal women are related to some other type of health issue requiring treatment.
How Uterine Fibroids Are Treated
Not all women with fibroids experience symptoms, making treatment unnecessary. But in cases where uterine fibroids cause uncomfortable or life-altering symptoms, several treatment options may be recommended.
Treatments for fibroids will be recommended based on several factors, including whether a woman wants to become pregnant in the future, as well as the size and location of the fibroid. An experienced provider can help you determine what makes sense for you when treating uterine fibroids.
A class of medications known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists can shrink fibroids. Other medications can help alleviate fibroid symptoms. For example, oral contraceptives can control heavy bleeding and other menstrual irregularities. Over-the-counter pain medications can minimize cramps and low-back pain.
Some women may benefit from having uterine fibroids surgically removed. The type of surgery will depend on the severity of symptoms a woman is experiencing and whether she wants to become pregnant in the future.
When you’re dealing with uncomfortable symptoms related to a women’s health issue, the providers at Magnolia Women’s Center are here to help with prompt diagnosis and treatment.
If you have been diagnosed with flat feet, you may wonder what you can do to relieve the discomfort you feel after a long day on your feet. It may help to add a few simple exercises and new habits and footwear. Your orthopaedic provider may also have suggestions about adaptive tools that can make being on your feet a little more comfortable.
What Are Flat Feet?
The arches in a baby’s naturally flat feet begin to form during the first two to three years of life, when tendons in the feet get stronger. The flatness of a baby’s feet is usually gone by age 6, when a child’s arches and foot muscles have fully developed. However, between 10% and 20% of children never develop those arches.
In adults, flat feet and fallen arches may develop due to many factors, including weakened tendons in the feet, rheumatoid arthritis, broken bones in the middle of the foot or injuries to foot ligaments. While some of these causes are temporary, others may linger.
You may not experience any symptoms of flat feet, but you might feel foot fatigue and discomfort, particularly after a long day on their feet. Pain may also extend into other parts of your body, including the hips, lower back and knees.
Those who have flat feet may also be at a higher risk of plantar fasciitis, a condition that causes inflammation and pain in the heel area of the foot. If you develop flat feet and experience pain as a result, your medical provider may recommend different strategies to help you find relief. These can include wearing supportive shoes or adding orthotic inserts such as arch supports. Physical therapy and exercises can also fix flat feet, as can surgical repair of a foot tendon or joint in rare cases.
Three Simple Stretches
If you’re experiencing discomfort related to flat feet, try these specialized exercises:
- Calf raises. In a standing position, either on the floor or on a stair, lift your heels as high as you can while keeping your toes flat on the floor. Hold for five seconds, then lower your heels to the floor.
- Golf ball rolls. In a seated position, place a golf ball under one of your feet. Roll the ball around to massage the arch. After two to three minutes, switch feet.
- Towel curls. Sit in a chair with a small towel placed under your feet. Keeping your heels flat on the floor, curl your toes to scrunch up the center portion of the towel so you are feeling a stretch. Hold for a few seconds, then release.
Wondering whether your foot pain is due to flat feet? The Orthopaedic Center at Magnolia Regional Health Center offers care for a full spectrum of foot conditions.