Every time you get behind the wheel, you’re at risk. Even as the best driver there is, accidents occur each year. In 2020, there were:
- 1,349 serious injuries or fatalities caused by lane departures.
- 847 serious injuries or fatalities caused by aggressive driving and speeding.
- 838 serious injuries or fatalities caused by impaired driving.
- 663 serious injuries or fatalities caused by collisions at intersections.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that Fresno County is the most dangerous county in California for drivers in 2024. Highway 180 is the most dangerous road in Fresno County.
Accidents causing serious injuries should always be transported by ambulance to a local hospital for immediate medical attention. When your injuries aren’t as critical, you often have the option of seeing a doctor or leaving the scene once you have a ride. Urgent care is always the right choice in situations like these.
Why Urgent Care?
You heard tires squeal, metal scrap, and glass break. When your car stops, you’re able to unbuckle your seat belt and get out. You feel fine. Police arrive and ask if you want to go to the emergency room. You don’t feel injured, so you refuse an ambulance.
That’s fine, but you should go to urgent care. Why?
1. Adrenaline Dulls Pain
In an accident, your body protects you from the shock by releasing adrenaline. Adrenaline masks pain for several hours or even a day or two. Once the adrenaline wears off, you realize how much pain you’re in.
You might not feel any pain at the crash scene, but you’ll feel it later. You may not want to spend hours in an ER waiting room, which is understandable. You should go to urgent care to make sure that any bumps or bruises are minor.
2. Concussions Are a Risk
During a crash, your head moves forward and backward or side to side. That force is enough to bump the brain against your skull or damage tissue and blood vessels. When this happens, you’re at risk of severe head injuries.
Concussions are possible after an accident, especially if you are in an older car without airbags. Your head hits the frame around the windshield or a window, and a concussion happens. You might not realize you have it until you’re home and alone. You shouldn’t be alone if you suffered a head injury in an accident.
You should see a doctor to make sure you’re okay. If you do have a concussion, make sure you have someone at home. You need someone to monitor your mental status and make sure you don’t pass out for a couple of days.
3. Soft Tissue Injuries Appear Later
After an accident, soft tissue injuries may not appear for a few days. One of the most common is whiplash, a neck injury that presents with arm numbness, a headache, neck pain/stiffness, shoulder pain, and tiredness. It occurs when the neck moves forward and back rapidly during a collision, especially after being rear-ended.
It often heals slowly over a few weeks, but it requires treatments like over-the-counter pain relievers and neck exercises. Even with treatment, it can lead to long-term neck pain. That’s why you need to see a doctor and get a professional diagnosis as soon as possible.
When Is the Emergency Department Best?
The emergency department is the best choice if you have a serious bone break. If you lose consciousness, have severe burns, or have deep cuts where blood is now slowing or stopping with compression, go to the ER.
If you’re transported by ambulance, you’ll go to the ER. If you can walk, urgent care is often the best choice. You’ll still get the same care, but you won’t have to deal with long waits in the ER waiting room while they triage patients with more serious injuries.
The Immediate Benefits Urgent Care Offers
A trip to urgent care offers several benefits that make it the best choice after a fender-bender.
1. Faster Care
When you go to one of Fresno’s hospitals, reports show that the average wait times are:
- Adventist Health Reedley – About 2.5 hours
- Clovis Community Medical Center – About 4.5 hours
- Saint Agnes Medical Center – Just over 4 hours
Those wait times may be shorter if it’s a slow night, but they can also be substantially longer. If the crash you were in involved several people, the ER doctors see those with the worst injuries first. Compare that to urgent care, where the average wait time is less than an hour.
Premium Urgent Care offers online check-in, which reduces your wait time. When you have the patient forms filled out, you breeze through the registration process. That ensures you see a doctor quickly.
2. Quality Care
As much as an emergency room doctor wants to spend hours talking to you and diagnosing every health issue, they need to treat you and move on as quickly as possible. There’s no time to waste when so many patients need care.
Urgent care doctors and nurses have more time to spend listening to you and diagnosing all of your injuries. If the doctor believes you have more severe internal injuries based on the bruising or tenderness, they send you to the hospital for appropriate treatment.
3. Medical Paperwork Proves Injury Claims
You can file an insurance claim and say you have whiplash or a concussion, but the insurance company won’t believe you without proof. A trip to urgent care provides you with medical evidence of your injuries.
When you have proof of your injuries, you have the evidence needed if the insurance company’s settlement seems too low. Go to court with medical evidence proving your injuries.
4. Never Downplay Your Injuries
It’s human nature to be strong, especially if you don’t want your children or loved ones to worry. Never downplay your injuries following an accident. Don’t act tough and hide what you’re genuinely feeling.
If you do, the other driver’s insurance company might argue that you’re not as injured as you claim to be. Always see a doctor and get proof of your injuries within 24 to 72 hours.
When you choose Premium Urgent Care for your post-accident examination, you get fast, comprehensive medical care. You’re not in a busy emergency department where doctors must prioritize who to see first.
Our doctors and nurses take time to assess your injuries, order X-rays when recommended, provide stitches, and provide after-visit and follow-up care. Premium Urgent Care offers or provides care for:
- Blood tests
- Concussion care
- Minor bone fractures
- Neck and back injuries or pain
- Strains and sprains
- Tetanus shots
- Wound care and sutures
You have proof you saw a medical expert for any insurance claims, and you protect your well-being. If you should see a specialist, our doctors will issue that urgent referral.
Head to one of Premium Urgent Care’s locations and use online check-in to save time. We’re here to assess your injuries and offer high-quality treatments for many injuries from a car accident.