Keeping It Real: Local Urgent Care Recs for When Life Happens
by Melissa Goldstein
In the spirit of keeping it real, we know every day is not a great day. When you least expect it, you or someone you love needs a little TLC - and sometimes urgently. Having had a few of those rough days, including this past week - here are our recommendations for quick local urgent care in case you need it.
Feeling Sick - Summit Health City MD Urgent Care
Also nothing we wish for, but happens to the best of us. Throat hurts, fever, dizzy, stomach - whatever it is and your doctor can’t see you until next week! Open 7 days a week, easy to access, tons of parking, and a nice big waiting room with efficient patient processing, Summit Health City MD Urgent Care in Short Hills is my first stop for sick urgent care. We have always had a quick intake experience, thorough testing/swabbing and prescriptions provided as necessary. You can even stop by Kings Supermarket next door while your loved one is being checked out and stock up on chicken soup and O.J. to help in the recovery. Highly recommend for a sick or need quick meds kind of day.
Kids Sprains/Breaks - The Pediatric Orthopedic Center
This is never a fun one. You hear a thud and then “Ow!!!! Mom!!!” and then you run through your at-home-triage. My first call was to the pediatrician while I was driving to urgent care. Luckily my wonderful pediatrician (Dr Thompson at Watchung Pediatrics in Millburn) stopped me in my tracks. In this case she said just go straight to The Pediatric Orthopedic Center in Cedar Knolls, a local kids orthopedic urgent care with evening walk in hours. Quickly turned the car around and started driving there instead. It was about 15 mins away, but this was truly a great find. Specializing in kids, open for evening walk-ins, they quickly, nicely and calmly dealt with my daughter’s “ouch”. We walked out an hour later after x-rays, confirmation that nothing was broken, a sling and a note for P.E. class. In the unfortunate event you hear the same “Ow!” and you think you might need an after hours x-ray for kids - highly recommend making this your stop.
Severe Pain/Emergency - Cooperman Barnabas Emergency Department
Another scary one, but knowing where to go makes it much less stressful. You or your loved one need emergency care. After hours, urgent care is closed, or it’s much more serious than an urgent care could handle. Unfortunately we’ve been there and thankful to have a good experience to recommend. In a true life threatening emergency and help is needed ASAP, call 911. Our local town first EMS responders are incredible. They are completely supportive and trained to deal with these cases. In my daughter’s first severe allergic reaction, I was so thankful I called them. They helped her right in our driveway in the ambulance, and then took us calmly to the ER.
In a situation where you or your loved one is able to drive but you need an emergency doctor’s help, we had a recent very good experience at the Cooperman Barnabas Emergency Department in Livingston. Even late at night, drop off was easy in the circular driveway at the ER entrance, and we had a very quick intake. Although we were there for a few hours, we were in a clean private room with a sliding door, given meds to relieve the pain, provided the right testing, and given results and prescriptions to be sent home confidently to manage through the next few days. Of course we hope to not have one of those experiences again, but if we do, Cooperman Barnabas Emergency Department helped us and we’d confidently go there again.
Glad to be on the recovery in our house! Hope you keep these reccos in your back pocket and that you don’t have to use them any time soon. Stay safe and healthy!