Levels of care classify health care into categories of chronology, priority, or intensity, as follows:
* Urgent care handles health issues that need to be handled today but are not necessarily emergencies; the urgent care venue can send a patient to the emergency care level if it turns out to be needed.
** In the United States (and possibly various other countries), urgent care centers also serve another function as their other main purpose: U.S. primary care practices have evolved in recent decades into a configuration whereby urgent care centers provide portions of primary care that cannot wait a month, because getting an appointment with the primary care practitioner is often subject to a waitlist of 2 to 8 weeks.
* Emergency care handles medical emergencies and is a first point of contact or intake for less serious problems, which can be referred to other levels of care as appropriate.
* Intensive care, also called critical care, is care for extremely ill or injured patients. It thus requires high resource intensity, knowledge, and skill, as well as quick decision making.
* Ambulatory care is care provided on an outpatient basis. Typically patients can walk into and out of the clinic under their own power (hence "ambulatory"), usually on the same day.
* Home care is care at home, including care from providers (such as physicians, nurses, and home health aides) making house calls, care from caregivers such as family members, and patient self-care.
* Primary care is meant to be the main kind of care in general, and ideally a medical home that unifies care across referred providers.
* Secondary care is care provided by medical specialists and other health professionals who generally do not have first contact with patients, for example, cardiologists, urologists and dermatologists. A patient reaches secondary care as a next step from primary care, typically by provider referral although sometimes by patient self-initiative.
* Tertiary care is specialized consultative care, usually for inpatients and on referral from a primary or secondary health professional, in a facility that has personnel and facilities for advanced medical investigation and treatment, such as a tertiary referral hospital.
* Follow-up care is additional care during or after convalescence. Aftercare is generally synonymous with follow-up care.
* End-of-life care is care near the end of one's life. It often includes the following:
** Palliative care is supportive care, most especially (but not necessarily) near the end of life.
** Hospice care is palliative care very near the end of life when cure is very unlikely. Its main goal is comfort, both physical and mental.