What To Do When Flu Strikes: ER or Urgent Care?

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by MARK POWELL

With the holiday flu season in full swing, a familiar scene is playing out in countless homes across South Carolina: people feel sick, weary and weak – their bodies overcome with pain. Many are so ill they can barely get out of bed – let alone meet the elevated demands associated with this busy time of year.

If things deteriorate past a certain point, a partner, friend or family member invariably offers the following observation: “you should probably get that checked out.”  And if our loved ones fail to heed that advice while continuing to suffer, the observation often becomes an ultimatum: “you are either going to the doctor or I’m taking you.”

But now comes a dilemma: where should you go?

This question is particularly pressing for those who do not have a primary care physician. And with flu cases mounting, the answer is important not just for our individual health – but also the ability of our system to handle the seasonal strain.

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One Midlands-area physician has a helpful suggestion for those trying to navigate the uncertainty. It boils down to three simple words: urgent care center.

“If you’ve got cold symptoms and wonder, ‘Do I have the flu? Do I have COVID? Do I have RSV? Does my baby have RSV? The nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that go with the so-called stomach bug? It’s all part of a long list of things that we can readily take care of in the urgent care.”

Thomas Gibbons, MD, should know. He’s the medical doctor for Lexington Health’s Cayce Urgent Care and Northeast Urgent Care. And, starting this time each year, he sees a huge uptick in patient volume.

To be clear: the flu is a serious illness and shouldn’t be taken lightly. According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 2024-2025 flu season attained ‘high severity” status. Here in the Palmetto State, the S.C. Department of Public Health (SCDPH) reported 51,734 lab-confirmed cases by the middle of February, with 139 influenza-associated deaths.

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Yet while flu isn’t something to fool around with, the first instinct many patients have upon realizing they are sick isn’t a good one, either. All too often, their initial impulse is to rush to the emergency department – or emergency room (ER) – at their nearest hospital. 

For many years, an ER visit was just about the only treatment option available outside typical business hours. But Dr. Gibbons says that’s not the case today. 

“Historically, it’s been the emergency department,” he noted. “People would go to the ER by default because they couldn’t get in to see their doctor. It was a pressing issue, and they needed to be seen right away as opposed to tomorrow or the next day.”

Acting on this ingrained tendency to head straight to the ER can unknowingly make a bad situation worse, though, according to Dr. Gibbons.

“A confluence of things makes going to the emergency department very difficult these days,” he said. “One is the number of people there because they don’t have access to routine care. Maybe they don’t have a primary care doctor, maybe they truly have a medical emergency – but you have a large volume of people who need to be evaluated and treated in the emergency department.” 

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Dr. Gibbons added that once patients present at the ER, many of them “need to be admitted.”

“When the ER is very busy, patients are sometimes receiving care in the hallway while waiting for a hospital bed to open. At the same time, we’re taking care of the people who are still coming in to be seen for all the different reasons they come into the ER,” said Dr. Gibbons. 

This patient overflow creates a bottleneck in providing care at the ER – and severely strains resources for ER doctors and staff.

“That is very problematic,” Dr. Gibbons said. “It’s something they’ve been trying to figure out as long as I can remember, and I’ve been doing this for over 40 years.”

As a result of this bottleneck, hospitals end up with “lots of people in the emergency department that we could take care of very readily and do a great job in the urgent care setting.”

How should a patient decide where to go when they’re sick and realize they need help? Dr. Gibbons has a helpful analogy.

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“I look at it like a traffic light,” he said. “If the light’s green, that would be urgent care. Yellow or red… probably better to go to the emergency department.”

Also, Dr. Gibbons noted many urgent care centers now offer a much wider range of treatment options – extending far beyond the original “doc-in-a-box” quick-visit concept.  

“Some people say, ‘why go to the urgent care? they can’t do anything there,'” he said. “Well, it depends on the particular facility. Some urgent care facilities can only do a strep test or a flu test – or maybe a urinalysis and sometimes X-rays. But our six facilities have the capability to perform extensive lab tests, X-rays, CT scans, and ultrasounds. So, we can do a fairly comprehensive evaluation and treat most conditions effectively so that people don’t have to go to the ER.”

Remember that this flu season: knowing when it’s time to get help is a critical first step… but knowing where to go has become every bit as important for the health of our communities.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.

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