Harris Fleming, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Freestanding ERs Are Trying to Make a Killing on COVID-19 Tests

A couple of years ago, stories of patients getting surprise bills from freestanding emergency rooms—often based on the mistaken presumption that they had actually visited an urgent care center—ran rampant. Legislation in various states reduced the risk of that happening, and urgent care centers did their part by taking great pains to differentiate themselves from freestanding ERs. However, now that COVID-19 testing has become both common and urgently necessary, patients are again getting stung by …

Follow-Up: Make the Case to Keep COVID-19 Testing in a Clinical Setting—for the Good of Patients and Your Practice

News that the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security were ready to plop down $230 million for at-home COVID-19 tests may have been great for the manufacturer, but it could have a deleterious effect on urgent care and other clinical settings that conduct testing—and on the patients the tests are designed to help, as well. The concern is that not all patients will be able to follow the instructions or be physically able …

Be Aware: The UK COVID-19 Variant Is Becoming the Dominant U.S. Strain—Fast

As in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people (including healthcare professionals) may be taking false comfort in the fact that the multiple variants of the virus started cropping up “somewhere else.” Also as we saw a year ago, however, that kind of thinking is no protection. Early, yet-to-be published data show that the variant first detected in the United Kingdom is becoming the dominant strain in several countries—and that its occurrence is …

More Rationale for Proactive Testing: One Third of COVID-19 Patients Are Asymptomatic

Schools, workplaces, and health clubs have developed screening processes to try to keep their doors open while also minimizing risk to staff and constituents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions about shortness of breath, fever, and other symptoms may actually pointless, however, as new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine reveals that at least one third of patients with COVID-19 may be asymptomatic. On a societal level, this calls into question whether it’s wise …

Data Say It’s Time to Stop Assuming Asthma Patients Are at Greater Risk with COVID-19

As time goes on and more is understood about the secondary effects of coronavirus, many patients are shocked to discover that they’re at greater risk than they thought. Some, however, can breathe a sigh of relief upon learning that their situation may not be as dire as they had been led to believe. Patients with asthma fall into the latter category, as new research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine …

Heart Disease and COVID-19 Are Locked in a Vicious Cycle—Help Keep Patients on Point

Patients with heart disease were identified early on in the COVID-19 pandemic as a population that was likely at risk for severe disease. At the same time, however, those same patients became less likely to follow through with cardiologists and primary care physicians over misaligned concerns that visiting healthcare professionals exposed them to greater risk of infection. That phenomenon is now being borne out in research. For example, an article published in the Journal of …

New Data Show Fear Is a Good Motivator in Patient Decision Making

Refusal by many to believe that COVID-19 is as transmissible or dangerous as it is (and, subsequently, refusal to follow guidelines on reducing risk for transmission) has been one factor in the nearly unchecked spread of the virus for much of the past year. Public education campaigns fell on deaf ears, too often. Now, however, it appears that the national burden became so great that even naysayers took heed and started changing their ways. According …

Advise Patients: A Worldwide Respiratory Pandemic is a Bad Time to Start Smoking Again

Americans have been smoking less and less for years—that is, until social distancing pushed many to take up or increase the habit, according to data from Altria Group Inc., which owns the Marlboro cigarette brand. Sales were flat in 2020 after falling annually 5.5% the previous year, a slide that started years earlier thanks in part to steep taxes on cigarettes and the growing popularity of vaping devices, including e-cigarettes. This reversal comes at a …

The Good News: Urgent Care Visits Are Climbing in the New Year

As we’ve noted in recent weeks, urgent care had a tough time of it through much of 2020, from challenges in receiving COVID-19 testing supplies to patients who were unnecessarily afraid to visit their local urgent care center. Now, though, in spite of again being overlooked as a potentially valuable partner in vaccinating the country against the virus, visits to urgent care centers are actually up 67% vs the previous 3-year average according to data …

Questions Arise on Why Pharmacies Are Again Taking Center Stage with COVID-19

When the COVID-19 pandemic first started taking hold, it seemed like pharmacies in the United States could get all the testing supplies they needed while urgent care centers were relegated to the sidelines. Now that several viable vaccines are available, that balance has yet to shift in any substantive way. Sure, hospitals and local and regional public health agencies are also conducting immunization programs but urgent care is again getting short shrift—but this time others …

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