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

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved this week a resolution granting Dignity Health Medical Foundation a contract to provide urgent care services in Half Moon Bay. —Ryan MacAsero, The Mercury News, 26 June 2024

Since its founding the organization has marched through the streets, launched urgent care centers and started summer camps for teens. —Alecia Taylor, Miami Herald, 22 June 2024

But a sports medicine doctor at the workout facility advised him to go to urgent care anyway. —Virginia Chamlee, Peoplemag, 13 June 2024

Warm, sure, but stepping onto a sidewalk barefoot didn’t result in a trip to urgent care. —Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 22 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined at sense 1