with Saint Clare’s The Important Difference Between a Hospital Emergency Room and Urgent Care Center

During a medical emergency, it is critical that patients feel confident that they are receiving the best care possible. The increasing number of urgent care centers may make it seem that they are as practicable and viable an option as the hospital emergency room. When a health issue strikes, patients need to fully understand the difference between the services of a hospital emergency room and an urgent care center. Choosing the right option can significantly impact the quality of care, as well as save lives when time matters.

Dr. Vasilios Diamantopoulos, Vice Chairman of Emergency Medicine at Saint Clare’s Health, has spent almost a quarter-century working at the hospital. For him, the choice is very clear.

“A hospital is able to manage all levels of emergencies, whether it is minor colds and coughs, bruises and cuts, or as life-threatening as strokes and heart attacks. Urgent care centers focus on minor treat-and release issues,” Diamantopoulos said. “Urgent care centers also have limited hours of operation. Sometimes they may be only open for eight hours. An emergency department is open 24/7 and is able to take care of anything that comes through the door at any time.”

Saint Clare’s, for the convenience of patients, posts the emergency room wait time for both the Denville and Dover hospitals on their website, saintclares.com.

Diamantopoulos notes that the staffing for emergency departments at hospitals versus urgent care centers is significantly different and impacts care.

“At the emergency department at Saint Clare’s Health, we are all board-certified emergency medicine specialists, so we’re trained to recognize emergent conditions. No matter how subtle a patient presents a condition, we can detect it,” Diamantopoulos said.

For example, a patient may present as having a migraine. However, an emergency department with extensive equipment could detect an aneurysm, which could require immediate life-saving surgery.

“With regards to equipment, most urgent care centers don’t have EKG machines, X-rays, CT scans, ultrasound, and a full laboratory available. Hospital emergency staff are trained to use this equipment, and the procedures that are associated with them working hand-in-hand with emergency medicine physicians and nurses to rapidly diagnosis and treat the patient. These are the most important and significant differences between what an urgent care center can provide versus what a hospital emergency medicine department can provide.”

According to Diamantopoulos, attention to detail is another key factor that differentiates the highest-level of hospital emergency medicine treatment from urgent care.

Among the examples include staff at an urgent care who are not trained in emergency care may misdiagnose. For example, they may treat a simple fracture in a child when in reality the fracture lies in a growth plate, requiring further care. Another example is what may present as a stomachache may be a symptom of an actual heart attack. Shoulder pain can be a blood clot in the lungs.

“Some conditions can present with very minor symptoms and be really life threatening. A patient could be vomiting actively, and while most of the time the cause is something viral, it could also be a stroke. If you don’t have the trained personnel with their antennae up, and who know how to look for the subtle findings, because that’s what Saint Clare’s staff are trained and attuned to doing in the emergency department, that could be a serious and even a life-threatening problem,” Diamantopoulos said. “If you don’t have the right equipment needed, such as an EKG that will diagnostically show the difference between indigestion and a heart attack, you can miss something critically important. Here at Saint Clare’s, we have what we need to not miss anything.”

Diamantopoulos points to the high level of care available at the Saint Clare’s hospitals in Denville and Dover when noting the benefits of hospital emergency department care over ur- gent care. There are several notable treatment advantages provided at Saint Clare’s Health that include a wide range of services. The Morris County Screening Center for Emergency Psychiatric Services and the fully accredited geriatric emergency departments are in place, ready to serve patients. Pediatric specialists can provide needed help to children, including highly specific and specialized care such as pediatric neurosurgery.

Diamantopoulos specifically referenced the accolades that Saint Clare’s has received for their work in treating STEMI, or a ST-elevation myocardial infarction. A STEMI is a type of heart attack that is more serious and has a greater risk of serious complications and death. It gets its name from how it mainly affects the heart’s lower chambers and changes how electrical current travels through them.

“Any heart attack is a life-threatening medical emergency that needs immediate care. Saint Clare’s has received the Gold Plus award from the American Heart Association for its work in dealing with STEMI. Saint Clare’s is immediately ready to do the angioplasty and other work needed to get past this type of heart attack,” Diamantopoulos said. “These are the critical factors that patients should be considering when they’re deciding on where they’re going to receive treatment.”

Diamantopoulos remembers his time as a volunteer EMT in his hometown of Fort Lee when talking about the additional care benefits of not having to transport patients to any other location if they are initially treated at a hospital emergency room.

“EMTs can help augment basic life support. But when they communicate with the full staff and services that

Dr. Vasilios Diamantopoulos

we have at Saint Clare’s, we can elevate the care needed to the next level quickly and effectively,” Diamantopoulos said. “On our EMS side, our employees are extensively trained and can act as extensions of our physicians in the emergency medicine department. For example, they’re able to provide advanced cardiac life support and provide life-saving medications. In other words, we can take care of these types of issues at Saint Clare’s without having to send anybody anywhere else. This saves time and lives.”

In North Jersey, patients have the opportunity to go anywhere to get medical care. As he explains the reasons that he advocates hospital emergency department care over urgent care, Diamantopoulos points out those local patients don’t have to go to New York or Philadelphia. Instead, they can go to Saint Clare’s, where exceptional care is geographically around the corner and technologically ahead of the curve.

“At Saint Clare’s, we can treat patients as the larger hospitals can do, and we do it with compassion and dignity. We live in the community, so we have a truly personalized touch,” Diamantopoulos said. “We’re highly trained and we’re dedicated. And you know that we care.”

For more information, visit saintclares.com.