Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

The Legality of Docking the Pay of Urgent Care Employees

Urgent Message: While legal under circumstances outlined by federal and state law, docking employee pay for violating an employer’s policies may be viewed as demoralizing and unethical versus punitive actions like warnings or suspension. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Citation: Ayers AA. The Legality of Docking the Pay of Urgent Care Employees. J Urgent Care Med. 2025; 19(5):41-43 Workers frequently make mistakes on the job. Some are mere oversights that are quickly corrected, while others …

Mind the Gap

It’s believed that Urgent Care (UC) was born early in the 1980s, likely as the brainchild of Bruce Irwin, MD. He was an emergency room physician who saw “many people were coming to the emergency room with problems that could have been cared for in a less expensive and more convenient manner.”1 He opened a facility to do just that, which became American Family Care, the nation’s largest Urgent Care provider. Dr. Bruce Irwin passed …

Starting an Urgent Care in a New Era

Urgent Message: Today, there are very few market opportunities for urgent care that present no competition, so operators must assess not just the existence of local competition but also the nuanced qualities of each competitor. Heather Real Citation: Real H. Starting an Urgent Care in a New Era. J Urgent Care Med. 2025; 19(5)37-39 The urgent care industry has come a long way over the last several decades. With 2024 being the first year where …

Retailer Apps Hope to Snag Patients From the Start

CVS Health recently launched a re-engineered smartphone app that hopes to make the consumer experience better, according to the Wall Street Journal. It includes prescription refill ordering by scanning a prescription package barcode and tools that offer more prescription price transparency. It also has a feature for scheduling appointments at MinuteClinics, video visits with a provider, and checking insurance coverage. Customer reward points and benefits are streamlined in the new CVS app interface. Also just …

Current Penicillin Allergy Data Paints Incomplete Picture

A meta-analysis found that the global prevalence of reported penicillin allergy is 9.4% (ranging from 5-15%), as published in the Journal of Infection, however, much of the data could be skewed because it comes from high-income countries. Researchers analyzed 174 studies from 28 countries. Of those, 72% of the studies were conducted in the United States (95 studies), United Kingdom (18), and Australia (18). Even so, previous research has shown that 95% of people identified …

Advocate Pulls Urgent Care Centers Out of Walgreens Stores

Advocate Health Care will close all 47 of its Illinois urgent care centers that operate inside Walgreens retail pharmacy stores as well as several in Wisconsin, according to a statement from Advocate Health Care as reported by NBC. Company leaders made the decision to instead focus on virtual care and urgent care in other community locations. The clinics will close next week. Advocate—the largest health system in Illinois and the 3rd largest nonprofit system in …

Outbreak of Tuberculosis in Kansas Features High Case Count

While some health officials initially distinguished an emerging tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in Kansas City as the largest documented TB outbreak on record in the United States, a report from the Associated Press indicates that it’s likely not the largest. A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told the news outlet that there are at least 2 other larger TB outbreaks recorded. According to data from the Kansas Department of Health and …

What Happens to Kids With Hypertension When They Grow Up?

In a cohort study of children and adolescents with elevated blood pressure (BP) and/or hypertension, researchers found that as adults, those same individuals had a 16% to 63% chance of returning to normal BP levels. The 2,918 children with elevated BP who were studied were more than twice as likely to have elevated BP/hypertension as adults, according to research published in JAMA Pediatrics. Children with normal BP often sustained it into adolescence, but the probability …

Oregon Bill Calls for UC Registration and Standards That Align With UCA Certification

Proposed regulatory changes in Oregon would require registration for urgent care (UC) centers operating in the states while also enforcing a number of operational standards. Like the newly minted Massachusetts law, Oregon’s proposal would give the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) discretion to create processes, define fees, and require certain capabilities among UC centers. For example, the proposed regulation includes a requirement that centers must provide clinical summaries and medical notes to patients after their visits. …

ZoomCare Expands to Meet Medicare Market Opportunity

After a pilot project at 2 of its locations, ZoomCare—which offers urgent care, primary care, emergency, and specialty care—has started accepting Medicare and Medicare Advantage patients across its entire network of 45 centers in Oregon and Washington, according to a press release. ZoomCare initially started with 1 urgent care location in 2006 targeting Millennials, and by 2018, the original founders had sold the organization to the local Catholic health system PeaceHealth. A large part of …

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