Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

With ED’s Slammed, a Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center Comes to the Rescue

While attempts to offer behavioral health services in an urgent care setting (or even using an urgent care approach) have failed to gain traction, that doesn’t mean the idea lacks merit. And with emergency rooms struggling with the dual burden of COVID-19 and staffing shortages, whatever community resources are available to decrease the need for people in a mental health crisis to head to the ED could be impactful. That’s exactly what’s happening in the …

An Alternate Route to Ruling Out Pulmonary Embolism—But Is It Safe?

Multiple tools to detect pulmonary embolism are at the urgent care provider’s disposal. And yet, misses happen. The Journal of the American Medical Association just published an article on research that tested an alternate method to detect PE, combining the YEARS rule with age-adjusted D-dimer threshold—and the authors concluded that this method “did not lead to an inferior rate of thromboembolic events compared with a conventional diagnostic strategy.” The cluster-randomized crossover noninferiority study focused on …

It’s Officially Time to Start Offering COVID-19 Boosters to 16- and 17-Year-Olds

With the blessing of the Centers for Disease Control of Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, urgent care providers are now at liberty to administer booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine for patients as young as 16 years of age. The CDC made its recommendation the same day the FDA announced that it had expanded its Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to include 16- and 17-year-olds. As with adults, those boosters can be …

Follow-Up: Several Factors Are at the Root of Flu Uptick—and the Key Culprit Is Controllable

As JUCM News has reported, rates of influenza are increasing across the United States and across age groups at a very precarious time, with rates of COVID-19 also on the rise. The passage of another week brings more of the same, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as regional and national media, are reporting that the climb continues but also sharing insights as to what’s fueling it. One of key culprits …

Two-Dose Vaccines Aren’t Enough to Protect Against Omicron. Could More Boosters Turn the Tide?

New data out of the United Kingdom confirm what has been presumed (and been concerning): The two-dose regimen of vaccination against COVID-19 is insufficient to protect against the Omicron variant. This isn’t surprising, given the fact that so many people are vaccinated but cases are climbing around the world, including in the United States. However, the University of Oxford researchers did not find evidence that infection with Omicron led to increased risk for severe disease, …

The VA Is Nudging Veterans to Get Flu Shots at an Urgent Care Center. Why Not Yours?

Recognizing that urgent care centers provide excellent, cost-effective care efficiently and safely (and that this flu season could be especially perilous), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is recommending that vets who participate in the VA health system visit their local UC center to get a no-cost flu shot. Urgent care operators can ensure they’re on the radar by taking the following steps, outlined by the VA: Determine which Community Care Network (CCN) region you …

We Can’t Afford to Forget: COVID-19 Isn’t the Only Deadly Virus to Worry About

The success of vaccinations against much older viruses has been part of the rallying cry for people trying to convince others that it is not only wise, but the responsible thing to do to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Unfortunately, we collectively seem to have forgotten that we can’t afford to let vigilance lapse once we think we’ve tamed a virus. We could be at a precarious point with measles right now, for example. The past …

Watch Out: After a Slow Start, Flu Activity Is Picking Up—Just in Time for the Omicron Variant

A year ago at this time, fear was high that the United States would be hit with a “twindemic” of influenza and COVID-19. It never materialized, largely due to the fact that measures taken to protect ourselves from the SARS-CoV-2 virus (social distancing, frequent handwashing, wearing a face cover, etc.) had the unintended benefit of keeping flu activity low. This year, however, with many people vaccinated against COVID-19 and letting other measures slide, we might …

Make Sure Parents Know Kids with Asthma May Be Especially Vulnerable with COVID-19

While patients with asthma were not found to be at greater risk for COVID-19 or poor outcomes with the virus early on in the pandemic, it now appears that children with asthma are more likely to wind up in the hospital if they become infected. In fact, according to an article published in MedPage Today, a retrospective study of approximately 750,000 children (5 to 17 years of age) in Scotland showed a greater than sixfold …

Rural and Tertiary Markets Are Heating Up for Urgent Care

Just last week we shared a story illustrating how poor access to multiple healthcare options, especially urgent care, can leave rural and tertiary communities with few choices other than the emergency room and, consequently, vulnerable to exorbitant bills for nonemergent problems. Fast Pace Urgent Care apparently recognized this as well, as it recently announced acquisition of a certified rural health provider with 15 walk-in clinics. JUCM has been tracking the opportunities that could exist for …