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

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

Veterinary urgent care network Petfolk raised a $36 million Series C led by Deerfield Management, the company tells Axios exclusively. —Claire Rychlewski, Axios, 29 Oct. 2024

All BayCare ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, laboratories, urgent care facilities and behavioral health outpatient sites will also be closed Wednesday and Thursday, according to the BayCare statement. —Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 7 Oct. 2024

The urgent care centers around them were closed for the night, so around 10:30 p.m. —Bram Sable-Smith, CBS News, 27 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined at sense 1