Joe Kline / The Bulletin Snowed-in vehicles on the side of a road near downtown Bend on Friday. The city of Bend street division first plows and sands major arterial streets used by emergency services first, then moves on to high traffic roads and eventually residential neighborhoods.

The most common injuries Dr. Randall Jacobs said he sees when winter storms hit Central Oregon are fall-related: head injuries, bruises, sprained limbs.

And the most common spot they happen is right outside peoples’ homes — on their sidewalks, porches and driveways, said Jacobs, an urgent care physician at Bend Memorial Clinic.

Jacobs’ message to locals during the current winter weather?

“Make sure to practice careful footing,” he said, adding that good, high-traction footwear is important, too.

Neither St. Charles Health System, which offers emergency and immediate care throughout the region, nor BMC, which operates three urgent care clinics, reported seeing a high number of weather-related injuries on Friday, even as snow and freezing rain closed schools, temporarily shut down the Redmond Airport and created traffic snarls.

Urgent care clinics also tend to see a good number of neck and back complaints when snow and ice hit from people who got into fender benders at slow speeds, Jacobs said. Chest pain from shoveling snow is another common complaint, he said.

Central Oregon’s dry air tends to create a lot of nosebleeds, and Jacobs suggests those who see an unusually high number of nosebleeds consider getting air humidifiers. Cold air tends to trigger asthma symptoms as well, he said.

Frostbite is a common issue, too, especially among those who are homeless, skiers who are not paying close enough attention to their surroundings and people who are out late drinking and don’t notice drops in temperature, Jacobs said.

Aside from simply being careful when they’re out and about walking or driving, people can avoid winter weather-related injuries by carrying warm clothing and blankets in their car when they’re out driving. Those who depend on medications, such as the elderly, should plan ahead before a storm and fill their prescriptions in case they’re snowed in for any length of time, Jacobs said.

A quick tip for those who plan to seek urgent care at BMC: the Eastside Clinic at 1501 NE Medical Center Drive is the provider’s only urgent care clinic in Bend equipped to perform CT and MRI imaging. (The Redmond location can also perform imaging.) That means more complex cases, such as abdominal pain with fever, kidney stones or pulmonary embolism, should go to the Eastside Clinic.

As for choosing between urgent care or the ER, urgent care clinics can handle fractured bones, as long as bones have not penetrated the skin, Jacobs said. Those with more severe breaks would need to go to an ER.

Urgent care providers can also handle complaints of chest pain, most of which do not turn out to be cardiac problems, Jacobs said. However, if the chest pain is coupled with other heart attack symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea and sweating, those patients should call 911 and go straight to the hospital, he said.

A general rule of thumb with urgent care is that patients must be able to walk in the door themselves; they can’t arrive in an ambulance, Jacobs said.

In the end, Jacobs advises to use good judgment and prepare for the worst, particularly when the roads are questionable.

“Ask yourself, ‘Is the trip worth it in terms of risk?’” he said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0304, tbannow@bendbulletin.com