Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Massachusetts Maps Urgent Cares Ahead of World Cup Soccer

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is making a game plan for this summer’s 2026 FIFA World Cup by collecting a list of urgent care centers and other provider sites to help visitors find needed care while experiencing the international soccer events. It’s part of the state’s overall healthcare system readiness strategy tied to the World Cup. Additional resources for clinicians include disease fact sheets as well as disease reporting, isolation, and quarantine protocols for …

Missouri Aims To Allow NPs To Practice Independently

Missouri lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow nurse practitioners (NPs) to practice independently, according to NPR. Right now, Missouri NPs are required to have a “collaborating” physician who provides oversight, which comes with a financial cost for operators while also driving many NPs to move to neighboring states where they can practice independently, according to the report. Compared to other states, Missouri has one of the strictest laws for NP scope of practice. …

Tennessee PBM Proposal May Force Retail Clinic Closures

In Tennessee, lawmakers are advancing the FAIR Rx Act (SB 2040/HB 1959), a legislative effort aimed at dismantling pharmacy monopolies by prohibiting pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from owning or controlling retail pharmacies. The bill directly targets vertically integrated healthcare giants like CVS Health, which owns the Caremark PBM, the CVS retail pharmacy chain, and the health insurer Aetna. In response, CVS has forecasted that the bill’s passage would affect access, forcing the closure of all …

Baylor Scott & White Expanding Urgent and Emergency Access

Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health is expanding locations as part of a broader strategy that includes in-person urgent care, digital urgent care, and new emergency access points. The nonprofit system currently operates 50 urgent care centers through a joint venture with NextCare Urgent Care and is continuing to invest in new growth in the market, as reported in Becker’s. Alongside these services, the organization plans to open 4 small-format neighborhood emergency hospitals in North …

Chatbots Practicing Medicine Poorly

In a study of large language models (LLMs) published in Nature Medicine, researchers found chatbots provide inaccurate and inconsistent information to people seeking medical advice, which could pose health risks. What’s more, consumers did not make better health decisions than those who used traditional sources for their information such as internet searches. The randomized trial asked 1,298 participants to identify recommended actions for 10 medical scenarios (eg, developing a severe headache after a night out, …

Rising Worker Activity Reflects Tough Labor Market

At least 4 urgent care centers in Colorado were closed on the same day last week because of a walkout among employees—who were not represented by a union—disrupting business operations and unexpectedly leaving patients in the community with fewer choices for accessing care. Local news outlets reported employee complaints about wages. There’s no doubt labor activity in general has accelerated across the country, and urgent care leaders should be paying attention, according to Alan A. …

Rapid Tests for RSV Reduce Unnecessary Antibiotic Prescribing

A retrospective cohort study of 256 children aged 9–36 months found rapid antigen testing for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) reduced unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in primary care, as published in JAMA Network Open. Among tested children, 30.86% were RSV positive. Antibiotic prescribing was substantially lower when RSV was detected: 20.25% of RSV-positive cases received antibiotics compared with 39.55% of RSV-negative cases. The prescription rate was 0.18 vs 0.29 per 10 person-days, corresponding to about a 48% …

Vape Devices Implicated In More Nicotine Exposures Among Kids

There were 92,973 nicotine exposures in children aged 1 month to 5 years from 2016 through 2023, according to a national analysis of U.S. poison center reports published in JAMA Network Open. Trends over time indicate nicotine exposures from e-cigarette are rising as vaping devices are growing in popularity. Researchers found 2 pediatric deaths associated with e-cigarette liquid ingestion, and most exposure cases occurred in toddlers (median age 1.25 years). Exposures involving traditional tobacco products …

New Amazon AI Tools Sum Up Information, Handle Scheduling

Amazon Web Services has introduced Amazon Connect Health, a collection of artificial intelligence tools, including features that help clinicians sort out clinical information from patient histories. Amazon reasons that clinicians and staff spend too much time cobbling together information, and the new agentic AI tools can take on that task instead. Already in service at UC San Diego, the AI suite is verifying patients’ identities; handling appointment scheduling in real time; creating summaries of medical …

Older Adults Willing To Drive An Hour For Care

A national survey of 2,650 U.S. adults aged 65 years and older examined how far patients are willing to travel for routine medical care before delaying or skipping appointments, as published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers found the median acceptable travel times were about 68 minutes for primary care, 128 minutes for specialty care, and 113 minutes for diagnostic visits. Higher income, higher education, and the ability to drive oneself were associated with greater willingness …

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