Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Antibiotics Aren’t The Only Drugs That Increase Risk of C. Diff

Researchers found that antibiotics and other commonly prescribed medications substantially increase the risk of Clostridioides difficile infection, and their analysis shows that more drugs impact the gut microbiome than previously believed, as published in Gut. Recent antibiotic exposure (within 30 days) carried the highest risk. Some agents (eg, nitroimidazoles and intestinal anti-infectives) had particularly high odds ratios (OR), likely reflecting treatment-related bias, the authors say. Lipid-lowering agents (aOR 0.8, 95% CI 0.8–0.8) and aspirin (aOR …

Does Your Patient Really Have Penicillin Allergy? Probably Not.

A large international study found that direct oral challenge (DOC) can be a safe and effective strategy for identifying patients who have a true penicillin allergy. Researchers evaluated hospitalized adults who self-reported a penicillin allergy—a label that historically is attached to about 10% of patients, according to the study presented in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Among the 5,121 patients assessed, 30.7% underwent DOC; of these, 95.5% (95% confidence interval, 94.3%–96.5%) were safely “delabeled,” after assessing and …

Physician Use of AI Increases As Confidence Grows

A new survey from the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Center for Digital Health and AI found that physician use of AI has increased substantially, with 81% reporting use in practice now compared with 38% in 2023. The average number of use cases per physician also rose from 1.1 to 2.3. Physicians say they most commonly use AI for research summarization and clinical documentation. Confidence in AI is increasing too, with more than 75% of surveyed …

As Flu Season Fades, Urgent Care Volume Remains Solid

Now that spring has arrived, respiratory virus season seems to be winding down across the country, according to the latest FluView report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Positive test rates for influenza were 9.8% for the week ending March 28, 2026, trending down as compared to the previous week (11.5%), and outpatient visits for respiratory illness also decreased to 2.6% of visits, down from 2.9%. In urgent care specifically, this month’s flu …

Imaging Ranks As Top Service Among Outpatient Visits

Nationally, imaging accounted for 24% of all outpatient visits and 17% of outpatient spending in 2022, according to a new issue brief from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI). Only diagnostic testing and labs accounted for a larger proportion of outpatient visits by category (31%). Mammography and chest x-rays are the most common among imaging services. In terms of reimbursement, commercial payment for imaging is higher than what Medicare pays, with commercial reimbursement averaging 245–314% …

Doxy-PEP Lowers Syphilis Cases, Directing More Care Toward Pregnant Women

An analysis of surveillance data from January 2017–June 2025 in Washington’s King County area found a health clinic program that offered doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP) starting in March 2023 was associated with substantial declines in syphilis diagnoses. Compared with projected trends, researchers found total cases decreased by 52.3% (3,031 fewer cases), as published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Reductions were greatest among cisgender men (−53.1%; 2,248 fewer cases) but were also observed in cisgender women (−46.9%; …

Congressional Leaders Ask CMS For Urgent Care Payment Policy

A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), urging the agency to consider new payment policies for urgent care centers in future Physician Fee Schedules. The gist is that CMS previously asked for information on how urgent care centers address capacity issues in emergency departments, then followed up by asking for comments on whether separate coding and payment is needed …

Deepfake X-Rays Could Be Hard To Spot

A new study in Radiology evaluated whether radiologists in 6 different countries could distinguish AI-generated (“deepfake”) radiographs from real images. In a subsequent phase of the study, 4 large language models (LLMs) were also tasked with deciding which images were authentic and which were deepfakes. Among 17 practicing radiologists, only 41% recognized AI-generated images as having poor technical quality at first look (“Did you notice anything unusual about these images?”). After learning that some images …

WellNow Openings Coincide With Reduced ED Wait Times In Upstate NY

The expansion of WellNow urgent care centers in upstate New York had a measurable effect on patient health and healthcare system performance, according to a study published in Economics & Human Biology. Results show that the opening of WellNow urgent cares was associated with self-rated health increasing slightly (by about 0.04 on a 5-point scale), and individuals in the community experienced 0.3–0.5 fewer poor physical health days per month. There was no measurable impact on …

Brugada Syndrome in the Urgent Care Center: A Case Report

Urgent Message: Brugada syndrome may present with subtle electrocardiogram findings, and clinicians must recognize the pattern promptly to help prevent sudden cardiac death. Katherine Quinn, MS IV; Eric Mast, DO; M. Drew Mattin, MS IV; Todd Fredricks, DO, MSS Keywords: sudden cardiac death; Brugada syndrome; Brugada pattern; ventricular fibrillation Abstract Introduction: Syncope in young, otherwise healthy individuals is often attributed to benign causes but can occasionally signal life-threatening cardiac conditions. Brugada syndrome (BrS), a rare …

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