Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Abstracts in Urgent Care – November 2025

Validation of Clinical Predictive Rules in Pediatric Testicular Torsion Take Home Point: In this study, the Testicular Emergency Score for Torsion (TEST) identifies a larger group of patients at low risk for testicular torsion suitable for safe management without Doppler ultrasound compared to the other clinical validation scores. Citation: Valdivieso-Castro M, Vázquez-Gómez L, Olabarri M, et. al. Clinical Prediction Rules for Identifying Children With Testicular Torsion: A Multicenter Prospective Study. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2025 Aug …

The Scale of Orthopedic Urgent Care

As of August 12, 2025, there are 726 orthopedic urgent care (OUC) rooftops in the United States, according to National Urgent Care Realty and Urgent Care Consultants. Based on centers added since January 1, 2025, the estimated annual rooftop growth for 2025 is 10.9%. The charts highlight the market’s structure: Most sites operate without hospital affiliation, and OUC is largely a scaled, multisite business rather than single-location clinics. Only 9% of OUC rooftops are single …

60-Year-Old With Palpitations

A 60-year-old female presents to urgent care with palpitations that started abruptly 1 hour prior to arrival. She denies recent illness or cardiac history. An ECG is ordered. View the ECG and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.

A 16-Year-Old Male With Rash to Legs, Altered Mental Status and Fever

A 16-year-old male presents to urgent care accompanied by his father due to acute onset of fever, abdominal pain, fatigue, altered mental status, and a lower-extremity rash. Symptoms began earlier the same day. The patient denies recent upper respiratory symptoms, medication use, travel, or trauma. On physical examination, he appears acutely ill and febrile to 103.1°F (39.5°C). Neurologic assessment reveals altered mental status. Dermatologic exam shows retiform, violaceous purpuric plaques with maroon borders on both …

LLMs Save Time For ED Discharge Notes

When using a large language model (LLM) assistant for generating emergency department (ED) discharge notes at an academic 2,400-bed tertiary hospital in South Korea, physicians gained some worthwhile efficiencies, according to a comparative effectiveness study published in JAMA Network Open. Six emergency physicians created 300 manual notes, 300 LLM drafts, and 300 LLM-assisted notes from 50 patient cases, which were judged on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. Compared with manual documentation, LLM-assisted …

Cost-Of-Care Pressure Leads To Oak Street Clinic Closures

CVS Health plans to close 16 Oak Street Health centers, representing about 7% of its total portfolio of these senior-focused primary care clinics. Doors will shutter by the end of February, and CVS cites rising medical costs as the main reason driving the reduction, according to Forbes. The company did not specify which locations will close but said it will continue to operate 230 Oak Street clinics across 27 states. Increased costs to deliver care …

Training Our Teams to Meet the Needs of Our Patients

Countless times over the last year I have heard variations on a “we can’t” theme. It’s a specific and focused “we can’t” related to the services we are not able to provide to our urgent care patients. “We can’t do that test.” “We can’t use that medication in clinic.” “We can’t have our medical assistants do that.” Sadly, it is purely a reflection of education and training. However, as opposed to responding with increased training …

One Voice, One Vision

In last month’s column, I wrote about the importance of proving Urgent Care’s value—not just in terms of access and convenience, but also in demonstrating the quality outcomes and systemwide impact that make our care essential to patients, payers, employers, and policymakers alike. Over the past several weeks, I’ve had the privilege of hearing from many of you who share this same commitment and are eager to help strengthen Urgent Care’s position in the healthcare …

New Drug Relieves Hot Flashes In Menopausal Women

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the oral drug elinzanetant for the treatment of moderate to severe hot flashes due to menopause. It’s a novel nonhormonal drug with dual neurokinin-targeted therapy (NK1 and NK3 receptor antagonist), according to the manufacturer’s press release. Elinzanetant offers another option for patients, in addition to 2 other nonhormonal therapies: NK3 receptor antagonist fezolinetant; and the antidepressant paroxetine. Two phase III trials with a total of 796 menopausal women …

Fewer Kids Received Antivirals For Flu During Pandemic Years

In a cross-sectional study of 3,378 influenza-positive children across 7 U.S. pediatric hospitals, researchers found a substantial decline in antiviral prescribing in the emergency department during the COVID-19 pandemic, as published in JAMA Network Open. Among 2,514 children at higher risk of severe influenza, 32.2% received antivirals in the prepandemic era (December 1, 2016, to March 31, 2020), compared with 15.6% during late pandemic era (July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2023)—a 53% relative decrease. …

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