Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Telehealth Use Is Down from Its Peak—But the New Plateau Is Far Higher Than Pre-Pandemic Levels

Patients were more willing to use telehealth than ever in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data from a report published by McKinsey & Company, telehealth claims grew 7,800% between February 2020 and April 2020. They dropped precipitously just a couple of months later, but have since plateaued. What could be of interest to urgent care operators who are considering telehealth as a service option, especially as we’re in the midst of …

Getting Served: The Do’s and Don’ts of Litigation

Upon returning home from a busy urgent care shift, you notice a certified letter with a law firm’s return address. You open the letter and realize you are being sued in the case of a 26-year-old woman you saw almost a year ago. As your heart beats harder, you think about returning to the urgent care to pull up the chart. You wonder who you should call (the medical director, the insurance company…?) Should you …

Abstracts in Urgent Care – October 2021

Duration of UTI Treatment in Men Acute Respiratory Illness in Children Isopropyl Alcohol for Acute Nausea in Adults Neurological Events and Metronidazole Prescribing Do the Modified Sgarbossa Criteria Offer Advantages Over the Original? Safety of a Second COVID-19 Vaccination Dose in Patients Who Had a Reaction to the First How Long Should We Treat UTI in Men? Take-Home Point: In afebrile men with UTI symptoms, a 7-day course of ciprofloxacin or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole was noninferior to …

A 7-Year-Old Boy with Scaly Red-Brown Papules on His Trunk

A 7-year-old boy is brought to your urgent care center by his mother because she’s concerned about a rash of scaly papules on his trunk, some of which had crusted or healed. A few of the lesions are hemorrhagic. She notes that they appeared a few days ago, accompanied by a mild fever. She dismissed the possibility that the source could be chickenpox because her son had been vaccinated. The boy reports that the papules …

A 61-Year-Old Woman with a 2-Day History of Chest Pain

A 61-year-old female presents to urgent care with chest pain for 2 days. She describes it as “mild right now” but that it varies in intensity; it was so severe the previous night that it kept her from sleeping. Today the pain has been stuttering, lasting a couple of minutes at a time. Pain is substernal, nonradiating, and is associated with vomiting and diaphoresis. Vital signs are normal. View the ECG and consider what your …

A 28-Year-Old with Foot Pain After a Fall

The patient is a 28-year-old female who presents with pain in her left foot after a fall of roughly 10 feet while rock-climbing. She reports that she “landed hard” with the left foot taking the full force of the impact. On exam, she had left midfoot dorsal and plantar tenderness and bruising across top of foot. View the image taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is …

A 10-Year-Old Boy Who Twisted His Knee in the Backyard

The patient is a 10-year-old boy who presents after twisting his right knee while playing a backyard game of badminton. The pain is such that he is unable to bear weight on the leg. View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.

Evaluation of Nonfatal Drowning in Urgent Care

Urgent message: Lingering warm weather and postpandemic euphoria continue to have patients eager to pursue outdoor activities, including swimming in pools, freshwater lakes, and oceans. Those who have suffered a drowning episode and whose symptoms have resolved may seek care or reassurance at the local urgent care center. Citation: Davidoff TQ. Evaluation of nonfatal drowning in urgent care. J Urgent Care Med. 2021;15(11):11-14. Case Presentation A 4-year-old Hispanic male without significant past medical history is …

The Unvaccinated Aren’t the Enemy

Taylor wore her embroidered sorority sweatshirt and a mask below her nose when she came to see me. She was 19 and had just finished her freshman year at the local university. Her story was cliché, as well: cough, runny nose, and sore throat “that wouldn’t go away.” She’d been sick for 8 days and she’d come in to get antibiotics. This isn’t a story about antibiotic stewardship, though. “Have you been tested or vaccinated …