urgent care

noun

1

: medical care provided for illnesses or injuries which require prompt attention but are typically not of such seriousness as to require the services of an emergency room

… they have turned to one of the fastest-growing segments of American health care: urgent care, a common category of walk-in clinics with uncommon interest from Wall Street.

—Julie Creswell

—often used before another noun

If your leg or arm is sore and swollen, go to an urgent care center; if you have chest pain, shortness of breath or you're coughing up blood, get to an emergency room.

—Rick Nathanson

The athlete sustains an inversion or eversion ankle injury and is evaluated at a local emergency room or urgent care facility.

—James S. Keene

2

: medical care of an urgent nature

Strokes now are the focus of a broad new public-awareness campaign labeling them as "brain attacks," needing the same urgent care as heart attacks.

—Marilyn Chase

Examples of urgent care in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Among them are babies, children, orphans, grandparents, Holocaust survivors and people with severe medical conditions in need of urgent care. —Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 2 Nov. 2023

Some offices accommodate same-day walk-in urgent care or emergency visits. —Parents Editors, Parents, 9 Oct. 2023

Based on the symptoms, the nurse can offer suggestions for treatment over the phone or tell how soon the caller needs to be transported to an urgent care center. —Omari Daniels, Washington Post, 20 Nov. 2023

The best solution, so far, is to make tests—including fast but less-precise rapid tests—a routine procedure at any point where a pregnant woman might be medically checked: not just ERs and urgent care centers, but syringe exchange programs and jails. —WIRED, 16 Nov. 2023

The mom of two went to urgent care, where she was diagnosed with the flu, given Tamiflu and sent home. —Cara Lynn Shultz, Peoplemag, 15 Nov. 2023

Pregnant women, unaccompanied minors, people with disabilities or in a medical condition that demands urgent care, would be given priority, the ministry said. —Noemie Bisserbe, WSJ, 12 Oct. 2023

Kaiser hospitals, urgent care centers and pharmacies remain open, though some labs have been closed. —Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Oct. 2023

Gilad said that while the most obvious value proposition is in reducing urgent care visits, the company hopes to rewire people’s medical behavior such that people default to virtual for all kinds of care. —Mario Aguilar, STAT, 3 Aug. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined at sense 1