Harris Fleming, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Warning: Social Media Posts Don’t Have to Name Names in Order to Violate Patient Privacy

Optimistically, you could presume that urgent care employees get the urge to post about their shift on social media because they’re proud of the work they do. Or, they may just find certain cases newsworthy or to have a novel aspect that would be of interest to friends and followers. Most, if not all, would understand that identifying a patient by name would be unethical and illegal. An ugly legal case unfolding in Florida right …

With Rumored Merger, Walgreens May Be Inching Closer to Urgent Care Territory

Having already staked a solid claim to primary care by investing heavily in VillageMD and announcing its intention to build a thousand clinics within its pharmacies over the next 5 years, Walgreens is said to be looking at a merger with CityMD’s parent company Summit Health. Both Healthcare Dive and Bloomberg have reported that such a deal could be finalized within weeks, resulting in a company whose value would range from $5 billion and $10 …

Urgent Care Could Be the Answer to Shortfalls in the New Paxlovid Delivery Program

At first glance, Walgreens’ plan to partner with Uber and DoorDash to provide free delivery of Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets; ritonavir tablets) for COVID-19 patients in underserved communities looks like a great plan that could be invaluable in warding off a winter surge. Look a bit deeper, though, and it’s unclear exactly how effective the plan will be. Most problematically, it presumes that those underserved communities have a Walgreens nearby and that the ride share and …

Low Staffing and High Demand Leave Retail Pharmacists—and Patients—in a Bind

Retail drugstore companies continue to ask pharmacists to perform more and higher-acuity services while, simultaneously, staffing issues are forcing them to reduce hours of operation and, with that, accessibility to patients. It seems clear there’s a chasm between corporate expectations and the training pharmacists have undergone in order to become the experts they are in pharmacology—which decidedly does not include conducting exams and diagnosing illness. A nonscientific review of mainstream media coverage indicates that nearly …

Another Incentive to Prescribe Judiciously: Amoxicillin Is in Short Supply

High demand, supply-chain challenges, and difficulties sourcing raw materials are combining to leave the United States with an insufficient supply of amoxicillin. According to an article published by Bloomberg, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, and Sandoz are experiencing shortages of multiple dosage forms of the antibiotic (though the greatest deficit is with the liquid form). The net effect is that new orders are being limited to ensure current demand can be met for as long …

Apple Is Betting Access to Data Is Enough to Launch an Insurance Business. What Would That Mean to Urgent Care?

Apple is likely to partner with an existing major player as a first step in to the healthcare insurance marketplace in 2024, according to an article published by Forbes. The whole idea seems to bank on the value of the rich data available via the Apple Watch line of products. The question is, how is that asset expected to translate to positive broker relationships and, ultimately, sufficient market share to support the business? History doesn’t …

Never Mind the Twindemic—It’s the ‘Tripledemic’ We Need to Guard Against

Mainstream and healthcare media (including JUCM and JUCM News) have been warning for weeks that the United States could be teed up for a twindemic—simultaneous epidemic-level cases of both COVID-19 and influenza—this year. As it turns out, that could be a less-than-worst-case scenario this winter. A report published by The New York Times says it would be prudent to throw respiratory syncytial virus into the mix of things to worry about in the coming months; …

The Numbers Are Mounting, and Show That Provider-Shortage Worries Are Well-Founded

As countless adages would attest, most of the scenarios we worry about never come to fruition. Unfortunately, new data on the healthcare workforce indicate that concerns about provider shortages are an exception. According to a Definitive Healthcare report entitled Addressing the Healthcare Staffing Shortage, the United States healthcare system lost 333,942 providers in 2021—with the majority (117,000) being physicians. The grand total also included 75,999 advanced-practice practitioners (53,295 nurse practitioners and 22,704 physician assistants). Internal …

A New Take on Diversification—from Convenience Stores to Convenient Care

Drugstore companies have had a fair degree of success offering some form of walk-in care for vaccinations and lower-acuity complaints. Big-box store operators keep trying but have yet to hit on a health concept that works. Now the parent company of a successful convenience store chain, QuikTrip, appears to be gaining some traction by providing more traditional urgent care services than one would find in a retail pharmacy. Having seen success with 11 such centers …

Could a New USDA Program Support Urgent Care Expansion in Rural Markets?

The United States Department of Agriculture is investing $110 million toward development and improvement of healthcare resources in rural parts of 43 U.S. states and Guam. Funds from the Emergency Rural Health Grants Program are earmarked to help rural hospitals and healthcare providers buy medical supplies, boost staffing levels for COVID-19 vaccines and testing, build or renovate facilities, and initiate telehealth and nutrition-assistance programs. The program is also intended to “help regional partnerships, public bodies, …