The average cost of an emergency room visit in 2017 totaled $1,389, up an incredible 176% over the previous decade.

There are dire health emergencies where you can't avoid a trip to the ER. Given the incredible prices associated with hospital visits, it's best to stay away unless it's an extreme emergency.

If you need immediate medical attention for a minor injury, you can always visit an urgent care facility. Read on to learn more about why you should.

1. Convenience

If you're not in an extreme medical emergency but visit the ER, you'll have to wait. You never know before you enter how many people are in front of you or how many people require serious attention.

A visit for something like a moderate burn or a cut that requires stitches might take hours out of your day.

An urgent care facility does what the name says. It gets you the care you need, and fast.

2. Price

According to US Government data, there were 27.5 million people in the United States without health insurance in 2017. That's a staggering number.

Without health insurance, the cost of an ER visit can break a person's finances. The unfortunate part about lacking health insurance is that people often don't seek care for ailments outside of an ER, or wait until symptoms become too severe.

Urgent care centers attempt to fill that gap with inexpensive care for ailments like colds, flu, and other common illnesses.

Read this for more info on urgent care costs.

3. You Don't Need a PCP

If you have a respiratory illness or show flu or cold symptoms, the wait to see your primary care physician might be too long. Often, PCP appointments need scheduled weeks or days in advance.

Symptoms that cannot wait, but don't require a hospital visit, are perfect for urgent care. Urgent care doctors can write you the prescriptions you need to fight off many different ailments.

Without health insurance, you don't have a PCP. While urgent care cannot substitute for the kind of long-term preventative care a PCP provides, urgent care can bridge the gap during the times you are uninsured.

4. Friendly Service

While ER doctors are no less caring than urgent care doctors, the types of services they provide are much different. On a busy night, an ER doctor might have hundreds of patients through their shift.

For this reason, they're more than likely to be curt and fast with patients. At urgent care, you can receive more personalized care for your less serious ailments.

5. Not Every Ailment Is an Emergency

Emergency rooms are meant for life or death major medical emergencies. Your sinus infection is not that, even though it feels like your head might explode.

Visiting an urgent care facility to get help with minor medical issues not only benefits you, but it benefits the entire medical system. People who visit the emergency room when they don't need to add unnecessary stress to an already stressed system.

Urgent Care Works for You

If you need the type of medical care that isn't of a life or death emergency, consider visiting your local urgent care center rather than the ER.

Urgent Care can save you valuable time and money. Keep that in mind the next time you think you should visit a hospital.

Do you need more medical advice? Check out the rest of our page.