Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Casual Clothes Are Fine As Long You Also Wear Your White Coat

Healthcare organizations typically have strict dress codes for clinical staff as a way to identify who’s who. But it turns out that when a clinician wears a white coat, it affects patients’ perceptions of professionalism, trust, and communication, according to a review of 32 studies presented in BMJ Open. Patient preferences for physician attire varied significantly by clinical context, medical specialty, and physician gender, however. In primary care settings, casual attire was found to be …

Frequent Rhinovirus May Protect Against COVID

Children often experience less severe symptoms from the SARS-CoV-2 infection, and a study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that kids’ frequent rhinovirus infections may be at least one factor that offers protection from both the risk and severity of SARS-CoV-2. Participants in this 6-month study (May 2020-February 2021) who had rhinovirus in the previous 30 days had a 48% lower risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and, if infected, showed 9.6-fold lower viral loads (p=0.0031). …

Older Adults Favor Urgent Care For Shorter Wait Times

As an alternative to the emergency department (ED), urgent care has an opportunity to meet the needs of the older adult population and earn their business. An Australian study published in BMC Geriatrics assessed what older adults value most in urgent care services through a survey that presented “discrete choice experiments”—in which respondents choose between hypothetical scenarios. Among the 995 people aged 65 years and older who participated in the survey, researchers found the strongest …

Cannabis Users Might Rely on Urgent Care Less Often

In an analysis of 5,242 U.S. adults with chronic non-cancer pain, researchers found medical cannabis use was linked to fewer urgent care and emergency department (ED) visits and better self-reported health. Authors of the study, published in Pharmacy, compared the records of 3,943 patients with 1 year or more of cannabis use to 1,299 patients who had no prior exposure to cannabis, drawn from a telehealth platform designed for patients seeking to obtain medical cards …

So Far, Hospital Closures In 2025 Are Poised To Outpace Last Year

In 2024, a total of 25 U.S. hospitals closed, as reported by Becker’s. Most of them cited changing community needs, rising operational costs, and evolving care models as reasons for ceasing operations. So far for this year, 19 hospitals have already closed, a pace that forecasts more unstable markets and unmet healthcare needs across the United States. Several hospitals included in this ongoing list have shuttered emergency departments, and all have produced job loss among …

Unpaid Medical Bills Will Remain Part of Consumer Credit Reports

A federal judge has overturned a previous Biden administration rule that would have removed about $49 billion in medical debt from consumers’ credit reports. The rule until now had been caught up in court battles. Even so, last year, the 3 major credit bureaus voluntarily said they would exclude medical debts under $500 from their reporting. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) estimated that if implemented, the rule could have erased medical debt from the …

Online Healthcare Reviews Offer an Earful of Feedback

In an analysis of 1 million online Yelp reviews across 138,605 U.S. healthcare providers, researchers identified patterns and words linked to patient satisfaction by leveraging machine learning. More than 46% of the reviews were negative (1-2 stars), and 50.1% were positive (4-5 stars). The mean (SD) rating was 3.1 stars, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open. Negative feedback often cited administrative problems (such as unfair payment and poor phone interactions), and positive …

DoxyPEP May Reduce Use of Antibiotics For STIs

A study published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy analyzed data from men who have sex with men who were either living with HIV or using HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. The researchers found that using doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (doxyPEP) after unprotected sex significantly reduced the need for antibiotics to treat bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Between August 2022 and July 2024, 754 men in Italy were prescribed doxyPEP, and 222 (29.4%) reported using it during follow-up. …

GoHealth Urgent Care Inks Joint Venture With Community Health Network

GoHealth Urgent Care has announced another health system joint venture, this time with Community Health Network in central Indiana. As part of the deal, 6 existing Community MedCheck urgent care centers will transition later this year to the Community-GoHealth Urgent Care brand, according to a press release. Future growth through new rooftops is also part of the long-term strategy. Earlier this month, GoHealth announced a similar joint venture for 81 UPMC centers in Pennsylvania and …

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