Emergency Room or Urgent Care for My Child?

Parents and caregivers often wonder whether they should take their child to an emergency room or urgent care. http://www.chop.edu/urgent

A pediatric urgent care center can handle some of the illnesses and injuries you might think require an emergency room visit. When you don’t think you need an ER, but you don’t want to wait for the pediatrician’s office to open, call your child’s doctor and ask if urgent care is the solution. These facilities treat your child when you need it, on evenings and weekends, and how you need it, with consideration for his or her specific needs.

For children, pediatric urgent care centers are a great choice. The nurses and doctors at the Children Hospital of Philadelphia's pediatric Urgent Care Centers understand that children are not small adults. Our urgent care staff members have been trained and have experience in pediatric assessment in CHOP’s Emergency Department, Neonatal/Infant Intensive Care (N/IICU) Unit, and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). And they consult with our in-hospital pediatric experts in orthopedics, radiology and other specialties.