Harris Fleming, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

The Trend Toward Hiring NPs May Have Unintended Consequences

Nurse practitioners are gaining in both responsibility and numbers in the urgent care industry (as are physician assistants). The appeal is that it costs less to employ the average NP than it does the average physician, with no loss in prescribing authority. Employing advanced practice providers (APPs) in general allows an urgent care operator to handle more patients efficiently without adding dramatically to payroll. According to research published recently in the journal Health Affairs, the …

As Flu Shuts Down an Entire School, Health Officials Recommend Urgent Care Over the ED

Influenza infections are so rampant in Rexford, NY that an entire elementary school was forced to shut its doors for a day. Student absences were up to 20%, with faculty also calling in sick at such a rate that the school district was hard pressed to find coverage for the students who were in class. Considering that every day sick children and adults walked through the door increased the risk of spreading infection further, the …

Overprescribing Antibiotics Is a Concern Well Beyond ENT-Type Complaints

Urgent care and emergency room physicians have been taken to task for writing too many prescriptions for patients who present with sore throat, earache, and other typical upper respiratory complaints. A new study out of Case Western Reserve University and published in the Journal of the American Dental Association points out that they need to be more vigilant when it comes to prescribing for patients who present with dental pain and swelling, however. One of …

Well-Founded or Not, Fears Over the Novel Coronavirus Are Driving Patients to Urgent Care

Mainstream media coverage of the international 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak continues at a breakneck pace, even though there have been very few confirmed cases in the U.S. at this point. It seems to be weighing on every patient locked into a winter cold, but the fact is that many more patients are dying of influenza than are likely to even be exposed to 2019-nCoV. While clinicians should be vigilant for symptoms of 2019-nCoV and …

Merely Adopting Existing Standards on Opioids Could Save Lives

Seeing opioid prescriptions increase by some 300% over a 25-year period in the United States—and their home state of Maryland land in the top five states for opioid-related deaths in 2017—decision makers at Anne Arundel Health System determined to find a way to reduce their rate of opioid prescribing without hindering efforts to reduce patients’ suffering. As it turns out, they didn’t have to look too hard. First, they recognized that physicians were writing for …

Data Breaches Are on the Rise—Again. Are You Protected?

Last year—as has been the case for the past several years—data breaches rose across multiple industries in the United States, according to new data from the Identity Theft Resource Center. That 17% increase may be especially hazardous in urgent care and other healthcare settings, wherein the risk is exposure of not only financial information but also sensitive, confidential medical data. Hacking accounts for the greatest number of breaches, following by “unauthorized access.” As we’ve told …

Sometimes, Fighting City Hall (and Persistence) Works—for Your Business and Your Patients

Not along ago, we shared the story of a Grosse Pointe, MI urgent care operator that was losing patients due to an overflow parking situation in the retail center where they were located. They were allotted a certain number of spots according to the terms of their lease, but those spaces were too often used by patrons of a neighboring athletic facility. Beaumont Urgent Care thought putting up signs indicating which parking spaces were “theirs” …

Urgent Care Mobilizes to Fight 2019-nCoV

Literally every day international health officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state health departments issue new statements about suspected or confirmed cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), possible routes of transmission, and the precautions thought to be helpful in stemming its spread. The CDC updates its dedicated 2019-nCoV webpage as needed and should be considered the most reliable source of solid information on the virus itself, but the Urgent Care Association has …

Settlement Details EHR Moves to Influence Clinicians—Maybe You—to Prescribe Opioids

In weighing whether an opioid prescription was warranted for a given patient, it’s likely that you were guided one way or the other by your electronic health record system. If that system was linked to the $145 million settlement levied against Allscripts-owned Practice Fusion by the Department of Justice, you may have been duped into thinking writing for an opioid was warranted when it might not have been. Given that Practice Fusion describes its offerings …

Real Estate Pros Are Intrigued by Urgent Care–ED ‘Hybrids’—but Are They a Good Idea?

You don’t hear much about urgent care–emergency room “hybrid” locations—unless you happen to be in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Albuquerque, or Indianapolis market, where they’re starting to become more common. Like urgent care, the UCC/ED combo locations (wherein an urgent care center and a freestanding ED are “co-located” on the same property) have gotten the attention of real estate professionals who recognize a perfect pairing between businesses looking for a lease and high-traffic shopping centers. Healthcare …

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