Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Practice Management

 

What to Do If A Competing Urgent Care Opens in Your Community

By StuWilli  /  January 1, 2020
Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The…
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What to Do If A Competing Urgent Care Opens in Your Community

If Your Business Doesn’t Work on Paper, It Won’t Work in Reality!

By StuWilli  /  January 13, 2020
Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer at Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The…
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If Your Business Doesn’t Work on Paper, It Won’t Work in Reality!

Kaposi Sarcoma Presenting in the Urgent Care Setting as a Single Mass Lesion of the Foot

By StuWilli  /  January 1, 2020
Urgent message: Kaposi sarcoma is considered an AIDS-defining illness with variable locations of presentation. Proper diagnosis of lesions can allow…
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Kaposi Sarcoma Presenting in the Urgent Care Setting as a Single Mass Lesion of the Foot

Reducing Morbidity and Mortality Due to MRSA in the Urgent Care Setting

By StuWilli  /  January 1, 2020
Urgent message: Staphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen in the community—one that can lead to a range of infections, including…
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Reducing Morbidity and Mortality Due to MRSA in the Urgent Care Setting

A 2-Year-Old with Foot Pain After Jumping Off a Bed

By bnapolitano  /  December 16, 2019
The patient is a 2-year-old boy who presents with a painful, swollen foot after jumping off a bed. You observe…
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A 2-Year-Old with Foot Pain After Jumping Off a Bed

Urgent Care News

UCA Webinar: What Do You Have to Offer—and Is It Enough?

Hiring the best providers is only half the battle when it comes to putting together …
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A Wetter Winter Could Mean a Jump in Seasonal Injuries. Are You Ready?

As far back as October, the National Weather Service was predicting a wetter-than-usual winter this …
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AHA Says Outpatient Visits Are Down—and Urgent Care Is One of the Reasons

For the first time in 35 years, outpatient visits to U.S. hospitals are down—and urgent …
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Radiology Is Becoming a Bigger Draw for Urgent Care Patients

Widespread ability of imaging services was a big step forward for the urgent care industry …
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Consumerism: It’s Not Just for Urgent Care Anymore

Traditional primary care practices may soon start to operate more like urgent care centers. Some …
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Web Exclusive Articles

If Your Business Doesn’t Work on Paper, It Won’t Work in Reality!

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer at Velocity Urgent Care and is …
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Expanding Your Urgent Care Product Line with Massage Therapy, Aesthetics, and Body Sculpting

Expanding Your Urgent Care Product Line with Massage Therapy, Aesthetics, and Body Sculpting Urgent message: …
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The Dangers of Mistaking Metrics for Strategy

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is …
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Five Steps for Winning Over Millennials in Urgent Care

Urgent message: Millennials constantly get a bad rap for “ruining” tried-and-tested ways of doing business …
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Much Ado About Toilet Bluing (and Other Drug Testing Requirements)

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care …
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Clinical Articles

Reducing Morbidity and Mortality Due to MRSA in the Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: Staphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen in the community—one that can lead to a range of infections, including …
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A 51-Year-Old Woman with Multiple Dermatological Symptoms and Muscle Weakness

The patient is a 51-year-old woman who presented to urgent care complaining of a rash, pruritus, myalgias, and muscle weakness …
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Ear Pain Mimics: It’s Not All About Otitis Media

Urgent message: Though ear pain is often due to otitis media or externa, it is important to include other diagnoses, …
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Pediatric Urgent Care—Specialized Medicine on the Front Lines

David Mathison, MD, MBA   Thirty years ago, there was widespread concern that specialty medicine was “a problem.” Consumers were …
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Practice Management Articles

What to Do If A Competing Urgent Care Opens in Your Community

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The …
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Rural and Tertiary Markets: The Next Urgent Care Frontier

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The …
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Urgent Care Looks to Find its Identity through Gen Z and Millennials

Urgent message: Younger consumers’ healthcare preferences are significantly different than that of older consumers. Urgent care providers have a prime …
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Urgent message: In today’s tech-driven, digital-everything society, industry-leading consumer companies all leverage technology to reducing friction—ie, steps, obstacles, and unnecessary effort—in making their products and services fast, convenient, and accessible. The urgent care operation that can align with this growing trend and leverage technology to root out friction will win loyalty and patronage from today’s digitally native healthcare consumer.

Competing for Patients in a Digitally Connected World

Urgent message: In today’s tech-driven, digital-everything society, industry-leading consumer companies all leverage technology to reducing friction—ie, steps, obstacles, and unnecessary …
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Insights in Images Challenges

An 80-Year-Old Man with Rhinorrhea, Cough, and Intermittent Dizziness

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A 59-Year-Old Man with a Painful Elbow After a Fall

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A 48-Year-Old Woman with a Facial Lesion

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An 88-Year-Old Woman with Several Weeks of Dizziness

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A 2-Year-Old Girl with Leg Pain After Jumping on a Trampoline

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A 47-Year-Old Female Cancer Patient with Red, Flaccid Bullae on Her Leg

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JUCM CAREER CENTER

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January 2020 : MRSA is Merciless – Unless You Know What to do Today

VIEW ISSUES ARCHIVE

CASE REPORTS

Kaposi Sarcoma Presenting in the Urgent Care Setting as a Single Mass Lesion of the Foot

Urgent message: Kaposi sarcoma is considered an AIDS-defining illness with variable locations of presentation. Proper diagnosis …
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Atypical Chest Pain in a Fibromyalgia Patient Presenting to Urgent Care

Tracey Q. Davidoff, MD, FACP, FCUCM Urgent message: Underlying medical and psychiatric conditions can cloud judgment …
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An 11-Year-Old Girl with Red, Itchy Rash

Urgent message: Urticaria from cold exposure should be considered to prevent future anaphylaxis and angioedema with …
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An Unusual Etiology of Chronic Subdural Hematoma: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Urgent message: Absence of an obvious cause of symptoms should not mislead the clinician away from …
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A 30-Year-Old Female with Headaches of Increasing Frequency

Urgent message: Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) occurs when a blood clot forms in the venous …
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HEALTH LAW

Legal Considerations for Expedited Partner Therapy in Urgent Care

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice …
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Can Urgent Care Patients be Treated Anonymously?

Urgent message: Due to the perceived “acute nature” of the urgent care setting, many patients falsely …
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What Use Restrictions Can Landlords Impose on Urgent Care Facilities?

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice …
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Employer Liability for Flu Infection

Urgent message: While urgent care centers benefit from exaggerated seasonal demand when a flu epidemic strikes, …
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#MeToo in the Urgent Care Center: When the Perpetrator is a Patient

Urgent message: Most urgent care operators are well aware of the need for strong, clear policies …
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CLINICAL CHALLENGES

An 18-Year-Old Male with Shortness of Breath and ‘Tightness’ in His Chest

The patient is an 18-year-old male who presents to urgent care complaining of 1-day history of intermittent shortness of breath, …
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An 8-Year-Old Girl with Persistent Sore Throat and Fever

The patient is an 8-year-old girl who is brought to your urgent care center by her father, who reports his …
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A 50-Year-Old Male with Several Chronic Conditions and Foot Pain at an Amputation Site

The patient is a 50-year-old man who presents with foot pain at the site of a right-foot amputation. He has …
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A 65-Year-Old Man with Epigastric Pain, Dyspnea, and a ‘Clammy’ Feeling

Figure 1. Case The patient is a 65-year-old man with symptoms of epigastric pain over the last 2 hours, with …
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A 57-Year-OId Man with Rib Pain with Deep Breathing

The patient is a 57-year-old man who reports to urgent care complaining of right-sided pain in his ribs when taking …
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OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE

Reducing Occ Med Opioid Prescriptions Is Simpler than You Might Think

A new study by Mitchell International and the WCF Mutual Insurance Company showed a strong downward trend in prescriptions for …
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Flu Season Carries Potential Benefits—and Risks—for Occupational Medicine Providers

If you offer occupational medicine services, it’s likely a heavily promoted flu clinic is an annual event. (And if not, …
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Keep Valued Occ Med Clients by Helping Them Measure the Value of Your Services

You’ve done the hard part—selling your occupational medicine services and delivering on your promise of providing excellent care—but now you …
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Want to Drum Up More Occ Med Business? You Need to Educate Prospective Clients!

For urgent care operators who offer occupational medicine services, the value of those services is self-evident. Likewise, businesses that already …
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Urgent Care is Forging Inroads in Occ Med—but There’s Still Plenty of Room for Growth

Occupational medicine can be found in more than half of U.S. workplaces, according to newly published data from the Centers …
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Revenue Cycle Management

Already Looking Forward to 2021—and (Hopefully) Smoother Sailing with E/M Coding

On November 1, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) confirmed with the final rule for 2020 that …
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Three Tips to Optimizing Patient Collections

Over the last decade, perhaps the most staggering shift in consumer-based healthcare has been the increase in patient responsibility. Due …
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Keeping Up with CMS Policies on Medicare Cards and Flu Vaccine Reimbursements

New Medicare Card Transition Period Ends December 31, 2019 As a result of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act …
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Be Ready for the ICD-10-CM 2020 Updates

October 1, 2019 introduces 273 new diagnosis codes, 21 deactivated codes, and 35 code description revisions to the International Classification …
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Utilizing Credit Card Pre-authorization to Optimize Revenue

With the continued rise of the cost of healthcare and higher out-of-pocket costs to the patient, urgent care centers are …
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DEVELOPING DATA

Most Urgent Care Centers Give Immunization a Shot—of One Type or Another

If you haven’t noticed, it’s flu season. In fact, it’s been flu season longer than usual for this point compared …
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Flu Season is Nearly Synonymous with Rapid Test Season—Are You Ready?

Flu Season is Nearly Synonymous with Rapid Test Season—Are You Ready? Patients come to urgent care because they know they …
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Conjunctivitis: When the Eyes Have It, How Many Patients Turn to Urgent Care?

“Care must be taken to differentiate bacterial infections from viral diseases and allergic conditions.”1 Things don’t get much plainer than …
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Physician Assignment Searches: Urgent Care is on the Rise, Hospitals on the Decline

This is an interesting time to be in the healthcare field. We keep hearing (and are starting to see the …
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Urgent Care Is an Appropriate Setting for Any Age—But What Ages Are Showing Up the Most?

This issue of JUCM, without any plan to do so, demonstrates the age range of patients who realize the value …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care

Abstracts in Urgent Care – January 2020

The FDA on Cannabidiol Improving Diagnosis of Cluster Headache Making Tympanostomy Tube Placement Office-Friendly Nothing to Fear from NDMA? Counseling …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care-December

More Advice on Inquiring About—and Assessing—Vaping and EVALI Key points: Citation: Siegel DA, Jatlaoui TC, Koumans EH, et al. Update: …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care-November

What’s New in Flu Vaccine Information New First-In-Class Pleuromutilin Antibiotic for CAP Abdominal Pain in Patients with IUDs—Watch Out for …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care-October 2019

Report Pulmonary Illness Possibly Involving Vaping to State, Local Health Departments Key point: The CDC is working with state health …
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Abstract In Urgent Care-September 2019

Practice of Urgent Care: Rude Patients May Do More than Ruin Your Mood Key point: Individual and team performance of …
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A New Year, and a New Era for JUCM

35,000. As I assume the role of editor-in-chief of the journal, this is the number that revolves through my head …
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For Auld Lange Syne, Many Great Years

The year was 2006: Saddam Hussein was executed for crimes against humanity. The Wii gaming console debuted. Pluto lost its …
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The MIPS Mess

It should not be terribly surprising to anyone that the massive government effort to incentivize quality has run into some …
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Virtual Urgent Care: Boom or Bust?

Telemedicine remains a hot topic of debate in urgent care circles. In fact, it seems like every urgent care conference …
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I’m Not a Lawyer, But I Play One…

Like many of you, the fear of a medical malpractice claim casts a wide shadow over everything I do. Like …
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