Practice Management
Case An 18-year-old man presents to an urgent care center with pain at the distal aspect of the metacarpal bone of the little finger. The pain began 2 hours earlier, after he punched a wall. He has pain with range of motion and a minimal amount of numbness in the finger. He reports that he has no other injuries. View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis would be.
Read MoreCase A 29-year-old woman presents to an urgent care center after a fall from the roof of her house, where she was cleaning the gutters. She reports that her right heel began hurting intensely immediately after the fall and that the pain worsened in the time it took for a family member to get her to the center. She cannot bear weight on her right leg. She mentions that she is a runner who often takes part in …
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Urgent message: Using social media platforms helps your community get to know your urgent care center. But be sure that you protect your patients’ privacy when doing so. Introduction Social media has great utility for urgent care centers, providing invaluable opportunities to connect with the local community and offering a host of educational tools for providers and patients. The explosion of myriad social media platforms, however, has created a variety of new channels for exposure …
Read MoreWatching for the Female Athlete Triad Key point: Understanding the female athlete triad is the best way to identify it. Citation: Weiss Kelly AK, Hecht S; Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. The female athlete triad. Pediatrics. 2016;138:e20160922. The female athlete triad continues to be better understood over time. As more females participate at higher levels of competition this disorder must be considered. The report’s authors note that the triad of amenorrhea, osteoporosis, and disordered …
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Urgent message: Various methods have been suggested for screening for type 2 diabetes mellitus in the asymptomatic population, although more consensus about the best approach, especially in settings outside primary care, is required. The usefulness of a diabetes-screening pathway for the early detection of undiagnosed diabetes was assessed in a quality-improvement study of a convenience sample from an urgent care center. How this article/column helps you: by analyzing findings on how screening all adults for …
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In Bouncebacks, we provide the documentation of an actual patient encounter, discuss patient safety and risk-management principles, and then reveal the patient’s bounceback diagnosis. This case is from the book Bouncebacks! Pediatrics, by Michael B. Weinstock, Kevin M. Klauer, Madeline Matar Joseph, and Gregory L. Henry, and is available at www.anadem.com and www.amazon.com. Introduction A 16-week-old infant was brought by her parents to the emergency department (ED) of a children’s hospital. Note: The following is the actual documentation by the provider. Visit …
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Urgent message: Diagnosis of abdominal pain is more complex in women than in men because of the more complex anatomy involved. Using a stepwise approach and involving patients in their care can make a difference. Introduction Part 1 of this article, “Abdominopelvic Pain, Part 1: Approach to Men in the Urgent Care Setting,” explained that finding the cause of abdominopelvic pain can be a difficult task for any health-care provider because the diagnostic process is riddled with important …
Read MoreWith this October issue, the editorial staff is very pleased to introduce JUCM CME, a convenient and cost-effective way to meet your annual continuing medical education (CME) requirements while reading the only peer-reviewed journal about urgent care. For over 10 years JUCM, the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, has been a reliable source for the latest and most relevant clinical and practice-management guidance in the industry. Our cover-to-cover readership regularly exceeds the benchmarks for other …
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While a big hit in France, an app designed to facilitate home visits by a clinician is unlikely to gain traction in the U.S. marketplace. It’s the latest incarnation of trying to provide Uber-like services in healthcare. This model is derived from SOS Médecins, which founder Gaspard de Dreuzy brought across the Atlantic in 2013. He and Uber founder Oscar Salazar dubbed their brainchild Pager, an Uber for home healthcare. Available on the App Store, …
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