Immediately After A Car Accident

WHAT TO DO IMMEDIATELY AFTER A CAR ACCIDENT?

Hi. Dr. Tim Steflik with Coastal Integrative Healthcare again and I’d like to talk to you about where to go immediately after having a car accident.

If you’ve been injured at the site of the accident, the first responders are typically going to recommend that you go by ambulance to the emergency room. The emergency room is not a bad place to be to get checked out after an accident, especially if you have any broken bones or any immediate concerns with bleeding or things that could be potentially life threatening.

On the other hand, if you don’t have anything going on that you or the EMS supporters feel is life threatening, then the emergency room is probably not the best place to go.

We see people who have been involved in fender benders – where there’s no blood, no broken bones, and they’re still able to walk and function – that go to the emergency room. They often sit for hours waiting to get some x-rays, and there’s usually no treatment provided. The recommendations may be to ice, rest, and follow up with their primary care doctor. In those cases, the emergency room is not the best place to go.

If they go to their primary care doctor, after being referred from the emergency room, their doctor might refer them to someone like us. A lot of primary care doctors don’t see patients who’ve been involved in a car accident because it’s not their area of specialty and not something they commonly deal with. Because of this, we work with a lot of primary care doctors in our area, and all over the county. We take care of the patients, but they continue to see their primary care doctor for conditions not related to the accident. 

The More You Know…

So … if you go to your primary care doctor, you may end up seeing us in our office anyway because we’re equipped to handle patients that have had a car accident.

The same thing goes for urgent care. Urgent cares are useful because they’re typically open for extended hours, on weekends, and at night. They may do all the same testing that an emergency room does, but at a much lower cost.

The good news about our office is that if someone’s been involved in a car accident, we’re available nights and weekends to see them, so they can avoid going somewhere that will not give them the treatment they need to get better.

In our office, we specialize in personal injury and in treating patients who have whiplash injuries or other car accident injuries, to get them actually healed and feeling better.

If you found this useful or enjoyed it or have a question, leave a comment. We look forward to hearing from you.