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

Medicaid rates are often half the prices charged at walk-in clinics and urgent care centers. —John C. Goodman, Forbes, 12 Jan. 2025

Atrium continues to expand care In September, Atrium Health opened its first urgent care center for bone, joint and muscle injuries in the Charlotte region. —Chase Jordan, Charlotte Observer, 8 Jan. 2025

For now, Ballad Health has opened a temporary urgent care center and plans to establish an emergency department at the site of the former Unicoi County Memorial Hospital in downtown Erwin. —Lauren Sausser and Holly K. Hacker, The Tennessean, 30 Dec. 2024

Location Matters, Part 3: Some free-standing emergency rooms may look like urgent care centers but come with ER charges. —Elisabeth Rosenthal, NPR, 20 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined at sense 1