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

Emergency departments and urgent care centers can test for the bacterium, but most primary care physicians rely on their expertise in listening to patient’s lungs to make the diagnosis. —Alice Park, TIME, 20 Dec. 2024

Cervical cancer screenings are usually performed during a pelvic exam, which can be done at a walk-in clinic like Planned Parenthood, urgent care clinic, doctor’s office or other health care provider’s office. —Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech, The Hill, 6 Dec. 2024

An urgent care FastMed in Asheville, N.C., on Saturday. —Minyvonne Burke, NBC News, 6 Oct. 2024

This could be the emergency room or an urgent care center. —Maggie Aime, Msn, Health, 6 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined at sense 1