Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Practice Management

 

Urgent Care News

Bobby Ghoshal is Experity's New CEO

Ghoshal Tapped As CEO To Continue Experity’s Urgent Care Growth

At its annual Urgent Care Connect conference, Experity CEO David Stern, MD, announced that Bobby …
Read More
Substituting nurses for Physicians During Shortage

Should Nurses Deliver More Care To Address Physician Shortages?

A recent Cochrane review and meta-analysis evaluated the impact of “substituting nurses for physicians” in …
Read More
Avoid Inclined Sleepers For Infants

Remind Parents To Avoid Inclined Sleepers For Their Infants 

Sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs) associated with the use of “inclined sleepers”—baby seats that are …
Read More
POC Viral Testing and Stewardship Reduces Antibiotic Prescribing in UC

POC Viral Testing and Stewardship Reduces Antibiotic Prescribing in UC

Researchers found combining a 15-pathogen point-of-care (POC) respiratory viral panel with an antimicrobial stewardship intervention …
Read More
Antivirals Underprescribed For Older Adults

Antivirals Underprescribed For Older Adults

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found low use of COVID-19 antiviral drugs …
Read More

Original Research 

Unnecessary Prophylactic Antibiotics For Clean Lacerations

An Evaluation of Unnecessary Prophylactic Antibiotics For Clean Lacerations

Urgent Message: Prophylactic antibiotic prescribing for patients with clean lacerations is a common but unnecessary …
Read More
Pneumonia in Pediatric Urgent Care

Increased Incidence of Pneumonia in Pediatric Urgent Care

Urgent Message: Pediatric after‑hours care clinics experienced a significant rise in radiographically confirmed pneumonia over …
Read More
Parental Pressure on Providers in Pediatric Urgent Care

The Impact of Parental Pressure on Providers Practicing in Pediatric Urgent Care

Urgent Message: Pediatric urgent care providers commonly experience pressure to satisfy parental expectations, which may …
Read More
Financial Viability of POCUS in Urgent Care

Algorithmic Prediction of Utilization and Financial Viability Modeling for Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in Adult Urgent Care Patients

Urgent Message: The prediction model developed for this study suggests that point-of-care ultrasound implementation could …
Read More
Chart Closure Time in a Pediatric Urgent Care

Improving Chart Closure Time in a Pediatric Urgent Care Setting

Urgent Message: Quality improvement projects can increase the percentage of charts closed within 1 hour …
Read More

Clinical 

Shortness of Breath in Pregnancy in Urgent Care

Shortness of Breath in Pregnancy: Differentiating Physiology from Pathology in Urgent Care

Urgent Message: As shortness of breath and edema are common in pregnancy, urgent care clinicians must distinguish patients with normal …
Read More
Sexually Transmitted Infections in Urgent Care

United States Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Comprehensive Overview and Relevance To Urgent Care Centers

Urgent Message: Patients frequently utilize urgent care centers for testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. All clinicians can be …
Read More
Postpartum Shortness of Breath

Postpartum Presentations: When Risk Arises After Delivery – Shortness of Breath

Urgent Message: Shortness of breath presentations for postpartum patients in urgent care should prompt consideration of venous thromboembolism or peripartum …
Read More
Nerve Block for Headache

Blocking the Pain: Nerve Block in the Treatment of Headache in Urgent Care

Urgent Message: Although greater occipital nerve block has demonstrated positive effectiveness and few risks as a treatment for acute headache, …
Read More

Practice Management 

Disclaimers Don’t Belong in Patient Charts

Why Disclaimers Don’t Belong in Patient Charts and What They Say About Your Culture of Care

Urgent Message: Replace vague, defensive disclaimers in patient charts with clear, specific documentation and evidence-based communication to strengthen trust and …
Read More
Surveillance and Security for Urgent Care

How to Choose the Right Level of Surveillance and Security for an Urgent Care Center

Urgent Message: Choosing the right security system—whether it’s surveillance cameras or a scalable monitored alarm network—can improve operational oversight and …
Read More
Upskilling in AI

Stop Waiting For ‘AI-Native’ Clinicians, Invest in Upskilling Now

Urgent Message: Invest in artificial intelligence upskilling across your organization by dedicating resource time and funding for educational activities. It’s …
Read More
Change Management Considerations with Ambient AI

The Listening Revolution: Change Management Considerations with Ambient AI

Urgent Message: The ultimate goal of ambient AI is to reclaim time for patient care by offloading burdensome administrative processes …
Read More

CASE REPORTS

Rectal Pain from Fishbone Feature Image

An Uncommon Cause of Rectal Pain: A Case Report of Fishbone Foreign Body

Urgent Message: Careful history and examination are required when assessing patients presenting with rectal pain. Clinicians …
Read More
Pneumothorax Wheezing

Wheezing as a Pneumothorax Presentation: A Case Report

Urgent Message: For patients with presumed asthma exacerbation, clinicians must maintain a high index of suspicion …
Read More
Bell Palsy and Stroke

When Bell Palsy Is Actually a Stroke: A Case Report

Urgent Message: While Bell palsy is the most common diagnosis for patients with unilateral facial weakness/paralysis, …
Read More
Case Report of Osteomyelitis in Urgent Care

Progressive Ankle Pain in a 12-Year-Old Male: A Case Report of Osteomyelitis

Urgent Message: While most pediatric musculoskeletal complaints are usually benign and self-limited, the urgent care clinician …
Read More
Management of Acute Opioid Withdrawal

Management of Acute Opioid Withdrawal in a Patient With an Unknown Prescribing History: A Case Report

Urgent Message: Opioid prescribing in urgent care can present difficulties, particularly in patients with an unclear …
Read More

Download Past Issues

JUCM March 2026 Cover Lacerations Image

March 2026: Unnecessary Prophylactic Antibiotic Use For Clean Lacerations

VIEW ISSUES ARCHIVE

JUCM CAREER CENTER

CLINICAL IMAGE CHALLENGES

Bronchiectasis in Urgent Care

45-Year-Old Woman With Chronic Productive Cough

A 45-year-old woman presents to urgent care with a persistent productive cough for the past few months. Over the past …
Read More
Acute graft-versus-host disease

A Rash and Fever Following a Bone Marrow Transplant

A 49-year-old male presents to urgent care with 3 days of progressively worsening fever and a widespread painful rash. He …
Read More
Complete Heart Block ECG Case

75-Year-Old With History Of Hypertension And Diabetes

A 75-year-old female with a history of hypertension and diabetes presents with 1 day of dizziness and nausea. She is …
Read More
POCUS Rib Fracture Case

51-Year-Old With Chest Pain After a Skiing Fall

A 51-year-old male presents to urgent care after falling while skiing. He reports catching an edge in a patch of …
Read More
Osteomyelitis of the first digit

64-Year-Old Female With Diabetes and Thumb Pain

A 64-year-old female presents to urgent care complaining of right thumb pain. The patient states she removed a wooden splinter …
Read More

Revenue Cycle Management

What To Know About Payers’ Downcoding Procedures

Tricia Krueger, CPC; Nikki Benedict Insurers are drawing provider backlash for new payment policies that reduce reimbursements. For example, Cigna …
Read More
Mitigating Coding Compliance Risks of AI

Mitigating Coding Compliance Risks of AI Documentation Tools

Three types of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are quickly moving to the urgent care exam room: real-time transcription; real-time coding; …
Read More
Adding Primary Care to Urgent Care

Benefits of Adding Primary Care Services to Your Urgent Care

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC In the last few years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) …
Read More
Billing Integrity in Urgent Care

Billing Integrity in Urgent Care: How to Manage Risk

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC, is Revenue Integrity Manager at Experity. The financial and reputational health of an …
Read More
Mastering Revenue Cycle Management

Mastering Revenue Cycle Management

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC Revenue cycle management (RCM) may not be the most glamorous part of urgent …
Read More

DEVELOPING DATA

The ‘Halo Effect’ of Hybrid Care

The ‘Halo Effect’ of Hybrid Care

Contrary to the fear that virtual care cannibalizes brick-and-mortar volume, 2025 data reveals a distinct “halo effect” for hybrid urgent …
Read More
STI Test Bundling

Missed Opportunities in STI Test Bundling

An analysis of 70,915,524 visits logged across ~3,600 urgent care centers in the Experity EMR from January 1, 2024, through …
Read More
Commercial Reimbursement In Urgent Care

Commercial Reimbursement In Urgent Care

While examining 17,410,492 commercially insured visits in the Experity EMR from November 1, 2024, through October 31, 2025, we calculated …
Read More
Urgent Care Testing For Chlamydia or Gonorrhea

Urgent Care Testing For Chlamydia and Gonorrhea

About three-quarters of urgent care centers test for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae (CT/NG) infections either in-house or by sending …
Read More
Scale of Orthopedic Urgent Care

The Scale of Orthopedic Urgent Care

As of August 12, 2025, there are 726 orthopedic urgent care (OUC) rooftops in the United States, according to National …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care

March 2026 Abstracts in Urgent Care

Abstracts in Urgent Care – March 2026

Review of Evidence for Links of Autism with Maternal Acetaminophen Use Take Home Point: Existing evidence does not clearly link …
Read More
CT Imaging in Children

Abstracts in Urgent Care – February 2026

Do We Need to Manage Presyncope Similar to Syncope? Take Home Point: Patients with unexplained presyncope and syncope in this …
Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care January 2026

Abstracts in Urgent Care – January 2026

Prevention of RSV Disease in Healthy Infants Take Home Point: In this early phase, drug-manufacturer-funded clinical trial, a single dose …
Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care December 2025

Abstracts in Urgent Care – December 2025

Causes, Management, and Outcomes of Diplopia in the ED Take Home Point: For diplopia, binocular diplopia was the most common …
Read More
November 2025 Urgent Care Abstracts

Abstracts in Urgent Care – November 2025

Validation of Clinical Predictive Rules in Pediatric Testicular Torsion Take Home Point: In this study, the Testicular Emergency Score for …
Read More

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Training Our Teams to Meet the Needs of Our Patients

Countless times over the last year I have heard variations on a “we can’t” theme. It’s a specific and focused …
Read More
Join Me and Contribute to JUCM

Join Me and Contribute to JUCM

It is an absolute honor and pleasure to serve as the new Editor In Chief of The Journal of Urgent …
Read More
Urgent Care is HOLA

The Quality of Urgent Care Depends on our Commitment to HOLA Expertise

At least once a month, a friend or family member will text me—often for the first time in years—to share …
Read More
UC Management of HDOD

Managing Health Data Obsessive Disorder Presentation in Urgent Care

In a prior editorial, I described the case of Thomas, a young man among the “worried-well,” who presented to urgent …
Read More
Health Data Obsessive Disorder

‘Health Data Obsessive Disorder’—A Modern Epidemic

“Low blood sugar” was his chief complaint, but Thomas was in my urgent care (UC) mostly because he was feeling …
Read More
Log In
×

Login to JUCM

For JUCM CME activity, please login to the Institute of Urgent Care Medicine website HERE.

Forgot your password?