Where should each of these scenarios send you: the ER, urgent care, or your doctor’s office?

1. It’s Easter weekend and your spiral-sliced ham turned out not to be very well sliced at all, so you pull out your favorite kitchen knife to help it along. Before you know it, you’ve spiral-sliced your finger.
2. Your young granddaughter is visiting -- and she’s been up screaming since 1 a.m. It’s now time to start the coffee, and the poor toddler is still whimpering and pulling at her ear.
3. For the last hour, you’ve had heartburn like you’ve never known it, despite the 10 Tums you chewed 40 minutes ago. In fact, you’re starting to worry that it’s not heartburn at all. You have a terrible feeling in your chest -- could it be chest pain? A heart attack? You’re just not sure.
4. It’s your family’s first trip of the season to Jordan Lake, and your husband’s foot finds the one protruding nail on the whole dock. Now, when was the last time he got a tetanus shot?
5. Your youngest took her new bike out for a spin and came limping home, her ankle swelling.
6. Your oldest took his bike out for a spin and couldn’t limp home -- when you pick him up, nothing looks broken but he can’t stand on that leg or move his foot at all.
7. You wake up Saturday morning sure that someone has sprinkled broken glass down your throat. Never has a weekend felt longer to you than it does at this moment.

Answers: For situations like 1, 3, and 6 -- severe cuts and burns, broken bones, seizures, and anything that might be a heart attack -- the emergency room is the place to go; in case of a true emergency, you should always call 911. For everything else, start with your primary care physician or the physician on call for your doctor group, who will advise you where to go. Wait -- where’s urgent care in the mix? They can step in any time for non-emergency situations, but they are meant to be the place you go only when your primary care physician is unavailable.