Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Quantifying the Front Door: A Blueprint for Tracking Urgent Care Downstream Referrals and ROI

Urgent Message: Health systems must reframe urgent care from a low-margin cost center to a strategic front door that drives significant returns by utilizing technology to track and maximize “keepage”—the retention of high-value downstream referrals that otherwise leak out of the network. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Keywords: urgent care; referral management; downstream revenue; health system strategy; patient retention; return on investment Urgent care is no longer just an access point; it is the strategic …

63-Year-Old Female With Growth on Scalp

A 63-year-old woman visits urgent care with the chief complaint of an asymptomatic scabby growth on her scalp that developed 10 months prior and is gradually getting larger. The patient has no systemic symptoms and is otherwise well. She has a history of working as a welder in a metal fabrication plant for the past 35 years. On dermatological examination, an eroded and crusted plaque is seen on the frontal scalp. A punch biopsy reveals …

Calling All Clinicians to Join the Colleges

With great excitement—and in full disclosure—I am writing this as the newly elected President of the College of Urgent Care Medicine (CUCM) and Urgent Care College of Physicians (UCCOP). It is truly a pleasure to have been elected during the most recent Urgent Care Conference this past April in Chicago, and I look forward to leading these organizations for the next 2 years. Now I am calling all urgent care clinicians—nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants/associates …

Abstracts in Urgent Care – July-August 2026

Pediatric Antibiotic Prescribing: In-Person Vs Telemedicine Take Home Point: Telemedicine integrated within primary care was associated with more judicious antibiotic prescribing without increased follow-up visits or inappropriate antibiotic use. Primary care telemedicine may improve access to care while supporting antibiotic stewardship efforts. Citation: Ray K, Wittman S, Kelly M, et al. Primary Care Telemedicine vs In-Person Antibiotic Prescribing for Pediatric Respiratory Tract Infections. JAMA Netw Open. 2026;9(5):e2610062. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.10062. Relevance: Acute respiratory illness (ARI) is a …

86-Year-Old With Palpitations

An 86-year-old male presents to urgent care with intermittent palpitations for the past several days. He says he has a history of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.An ECG is obtained. View the ECG and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.

28-Year-Old Male With Suspected Shoulder Dislocation

A 28-year-old male with history of left shoulder dislocations presents to urgent care with severe left shoulder pain. He reports an inability to move the arm after injuring his shoulder while taking off his shirt. He reports feeling the shoulder “shift out of place” during the movement. On examination, the patient is in significant discomfort. He is holding the left arm in slight abduction with left shoulder external rotation. His elbow is flexed and his …

Oral Drug Offers Options For Complicated UTI

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this month approved tebipenem pivoxil for adults with complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs), including pyelonephritis, in patients who have limited or no alternative oral treatment options. Marketed as Utebzi, it is one of the more significant antibiotic approvals in recent years because it is the first oral carbapenem antibiotic available in the United States, according to manufacturer GSK. Until now, carbapenems (eg, ertapenem, meropenem, and imipenem) have generally required …

Small Rise in Tetanus Warrants Attention

Cases of tetanus in the United States rose from 17 in 2020 to 38 in 2025, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), prompting public health experts to suggest that Americans might check their vaccine status and consider boosters when appropriate. CDC reported that from 2009–2023 there were 402 reported tetanus cases nationwide—an average of about 27 cases per year with 37 total deaths. However, other signs indicate …

AI Model Expands ECG’s Diagnostic Potential

An AI model developed by researchers at New York-Presbyterian and Columbia University Irving Medical Center has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for use in detecting structural heart disease through electrocardiograms (ECGs), according to a news release. Known as EchoNext, the deep learning model was trained to detect a broad range of structural abnormalities, as published in Nature: The model analyzes a routine 12-lead ECG and estimates whether a patient is likely to …

Endometriosis, Dysmenorrhea Linked to STI Diagnoses

In an analysis of 3.4 million women under age 40, researchers in Japan found a strong association between menstrual-related disorders (ie, endometriosis or dysmenorrhea) and diagnosed sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Among the 257,897 women with these conditions, STI diagnoses were consistently 4.31–5.29 times more common than among women without the disorders, as published in PLOS One. Genital chlamydia infection showed the largest absolute difference, affecting 3.53% of women with menstrual-related disorders compared with 0.67% of …

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