Urgent Care News

Rapid Viral Tests Best When They Inform Treatment Decisions

A recent review suggests that the routine application of rapid respiratory viral tests in emergency …
Read More

Couple Locked in Urgent Care Center in Texas

A couple in Texas spent more than an hour locked in an urgent care center …
Read More

Free COVID-19 Antiviral No Longer Free

In December 2023, drug manufacturer Pfizer changed its strategic sales approach for nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid) by …
Read More

Patients, Clinicians Have Similar Accuracy With Interpreting At-Home COVID Tests

When patients use at-home tests to check for COVID-19, their results are similar to results …
Read More

Could the US Lose Its Measles Elimination Status?

Rising measles outbreaks in the United States have raised concerns about whether the country is …
Read More

Web Exclusive Articles

A New 4-Year-Old Patient with Fever and Sore Throat After a COVID Exposure

Bradley L. Laymon, PA-C, CPC, CEMC PRESENTATION A mother brings in her 4-year-old, who has …
Read More

Code Case Files: An Established Adult Male Patient with 2 Days of COVID-Like Symptoms

Bradley L. Laymon, PA-C, CPC, CEMC PRESENTATION A 47-year-old established male patient presented after 2 …
Read More

What Qualifies Someone to Take X-Rays in the Urgent Care Center? It All Depends on Where You’re Located

X-rays are high on the list of services patients expect urgent care centers to provide …
Read More

Repairing Parallel Lacerations in the Urgent Care Center

Urgent message: Parallel lacerations or those that simply occur in close proximity pose a unique …
Read More

Getting the Most Out of Your Urgent Care Google Ads Budget in 2022

Urgent message: As urgent care volume has dropped from pandemic highs, the average cost per …
Read More

Clinical Articles

Isolated Sternal Fractures

Isolated Sternal Fractures After Trampoline Falls in Children: A Case Series

Urgent Message: Isolated sternal fractures in children can occur from relatively minor trauma, such as a trampoline fall, and patients …
Read More
Updates in Weight Management Pharmacotherapy: Essential Knowledge For The Urgent Care Clinician

Updates in Weight Management Pharmacotherapy: Essential Knowledge For The Urgent Care Clinician

Urgent Message: As more glucagon-like peptide-1 and gastric inhibitory polypeptide agonists are prescribed, it is important for clinicians to have …
Read More
Renal Cell Carcinoma

Case Report of Renal Cell Carcinoma Presenting to Urgent Care with Indolent Back Pain: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Urgent message: Although back pain is often due to benign etiologies, symptoms of progressive pain, weakness, and near syncope in …
Read More
Charting with Purpose: Precision Strategies for Accurate Coding and Malpractice Defense

Charting with Purpose: Precision Strategies for Accurate Coding and Malpractice Defense

Jeff Willis, MD Urgent Message: A well-told story explaining your thought process during a patient encounter will contain all the …
Read More

Practice Management Articles

Supervising Doctors May be Held Liable

Supervising Doctors May be Held Liable in Malpractice Suits

Urgent Message:  A supervising physician can be named in a lawsuit for malpractice against a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, …
Read More
IV Infusion Services for Urgent Care

Which IV Infusion Services are Most Appropriate for Urgent Care?

Urgent Message: When offered as a medical service consistent with an urgent care center’s branding, IV infusion services can enable …
Read More
Thinking Outside the Box to Bring Urgent Care to the Patient

Thinking Outside the Box to Bring Urgent Care to the Patient

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, Macc Urgent Message: Urgent care is a consumer-driven phenomenon, and physician entrepreneurs continue to evolve the …
Read More
Holiday Hours in Urgent Care

Considerations for Holiday Hours in Urgent Care

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Urgent Message: Whether an urgent care center should be open 365 days per year or …
Read More

CASE REPORTS

An Atypical Cause of Fever and Confusion: A Case Report of Delayed Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis

Francesca Cocchiarale, DO; Alexa Bailey, MS-3; Michael Weinstock, MD Urgent Message: Pulmonary embolism can be frequently …
Read More

Incomplete Kawasaki Disease Clinically Diagnosed From Urgent Care: A Case-Report-Based Review

Urgent Message: The accurate and prompt diagnosis of Kawasaki disease depends on clinicians’ familiarity with the …
Read More

Case Report of Renal Cell Carcinoma Presenting to Urgent Care with Indolent Back Pain: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Urgent message: Although back pain is often due to benign etiologies, symptoms of progressive pain, weakness, …
Read More

Quadriceps Pyomyositis After Aspiration of Patellar Bursitis: A Case Report

Urgent Message: Deep tissue infections are possible considerations for diabetic patients presenting to urgent care with …
Read More

Does This Finger Laceration Need Immediate Vascular Surgery Consultation? Perspectives Based on an Urgent Care Patient Experience

Patrick O’Malley, MD Urgent Message: Clinicians can apply best-practice care principles for lacerations of the hand …
Read More

HEALTH LAW

Changing an Employee from Full-Time to Part-Time Status

Urgent message: Whether due to reduced staffing needs or employee preference, some employees in urgent care …
Read More

Are Urgent Care Providers Liable if They Don’t Test Patients for COVID?

Click Here to download the PDF. Urgent message: As the severity of newer strains of SARS-CoV-2 …
Read More

Who Can Take X-Rays in an Urgent Care Center?

Urgent message: Given that x-ray is a differentiating feature of “urgent care” and the current challenges …
Read More

What Qualifies Someone to Take X-Rays in the Urgent Care Center? It All Depends on Where You’re Located

X-rays are high on the list of services patients expect urgent care centers to provide when …
Read More

Avoiding Defamation Lawsuits in Urgent Care

Urgent message: People are unlikely to trust their healthcare to a provider with a sullied reputation, …
Read More

CLINICAL CHALLENGES

42-Year-Old Soccer Player With Knee Injury

A 42-year-old man presents to urgent care with knee pain. He says the pain started when he was playing soccer, …
Read More

38-Year-Old With Rash After Heating Pad Use

A 38-year-old woman presented to urgent care for rash that had developed on her trunk 2 months prior. On examination, …
Read More

55-Year-Old Male With Dyspnea

A 55-year-old male with a history of heart failure presents to the urgent care with dyspnea. An ECG is obtained …
Read More

53-Year-Old Female With Fatigue

A 53-year-old female with no significant past medical history presents to the urgent care with progressive fatigue for several weeks …
Read More

12-Year-Old With Facial Trauma

A 12- year-old male presents to urgent care with his mother complaining of facial pain.  The patient experienced a trip-and-fall …
Read More

OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE

Does Concentra’s New Acquisition Foreshadow a New Era for UC and Occ Med?

On the surface, it seems like the kind of event that has become commonplace in urgent care: A large, national …
Read More

Update: The COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Many Businesses Is Off—Again

Just when you thought you had clarity on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s mandate to vaccinate workers at businesses …
Read More

That Vaccine Mandate for Private Businesses That Was Called Off? It’s on Again—and the Clock Is Ticking

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s plan to require employers with 100 or more workers to institute a COVID-19 vaccine …
Read More

Your Occ Med Clients Need Your Support with the New COVID-19 ETS—Immediately

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration just issued an Emergency Temporary Standard intended to protect workers from getting infected with …
Read More

More People Are Trudging Off to Work on Site. Do You Know Who’s at Greatest Risk for COVID-19?

While some employers are content to maintain remote or hybrid work situations for their workers, either because of strong stances …
Read More

Revenue Cycle Management

What is a False Claim?

Benjamin Barlow, MD; Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC The False Claims Act (FCA) is a federal statute enacted in …
Read More

Nine Recurring Coding Pitfalls for Urgent Care Clinicians to Avoid

Brad Laymon, PA, CPC, CEMC Over my career as a physician assistant, I have delved extensively into the intricacies of …
Read More

How to Survive a Payer Review

Benjamin Barlow, MD; Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC One of the biggest challenges facing urgent care operators is increased …
Read More

The Challenges of Billing Out-of-Network

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC One of the biggest challenges for an urgent care is billing insurance as …
Read More

ICD-10-CM: What’s New for 2024

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC, is RCM Compliance Manager, Experity With the fall season comes all the coding …
Read More

DEVELOPING DATA

How Urgent Care is Becoming More Corporatized

In 2023, the urgent care industry added 1,057 de novo locations—new sites that did not previously exist. But these new …
Read More

Robust Urgent Care De Novo Growth Continues

The urgent care industry continues to add de novo centers, according to data from Experity and National Urgent Care Realty …
Read More

Flu Season Begins For Urgent Care

In late November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that the number of healthcare visits related to …
Read More

Urgent Care Scope of Services

Same-day ambulatory healthcare services are the hallmark of urgent care (UC). Because UC clinicians care for a wide range of …
Read More

Telehealth Adoption Rises Steadily in Urgent Care

Consumers have come to expect a level of convenience from the healthcare system that parallels the digital innovations they enjoy …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care

Abstracts in Urgent Care – March 2024

Omicron versus Flu & RSV – Which is Most Dangerous for Children? Take Home Point: In this study, hospitalization rates …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care – February 2024

Predicting Which Patients Need an X-Ray Before Attempting Shoulder Reduction Take Home Point: In this study, the Fresno-Québec Rule showed …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care January 2024

Can Artificial Intelligence Be Used as a Behavioral Health Tool for Adolescents? Take Home Point: Conversational Artificial Intelligence (CAI) may …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care December 2023

Blood Pressure Monitoring—Cuff Size Matters Take Home Point: The use of an inaccurately sized automated blood pressure (BP) cuff resulted …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care November 2023

What Should We Do with the Nail? Nailbed Repair in Children Take Home Point: After nail bed repair, discarding the …
Read More

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Our Success in Urgent Care is Defined by How We Play Our ‘Greatest Hits’

Recently one evening, I meandered into a bar on iconic 6th Street in Austin, Texas— America’s epicenter for live music …
Read More

‘What Happens If We Do Nothing?’ Is Still the Right Question

Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FACEP, FCUCM “It only hurts right here,” Rich told me, pointing to a tender spot on …
Read More

Broader Issues Surround ‘Work Note Seeking’

Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FCUCM, FACEP Who among us has worked a single urgent care (UC) shift without at least …
Read More

What Happens If We Do Nothing?

Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FCUCM, FACEP In its most modern form, medicine revolves around action. We are trained as clinicians …
Read More

Analogy: A Powerful and Underutilized Bedside Tool

Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FCUCM, FACEP Click Here to download the article PDF Sophie was back with another one of …
Read More

Please log-in/sign-up to download these issues.