Practice Management
Rajesh Geria, MD; Patrick O’Malley, MD Every year, our nation’s 14,000 urgent care (UC) clinics care for nearly 206 million patients, equating to 564,383 patients every day across the country.[1] Imagine what would happen if there was no urgent care for just a single day. Now imagine that if that possibility lasted not just a day, but indefinitely. Unfortunately, many communities are at risk for this reality coming to pass. Decreasing reimbursement, clinician burnout, and …
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Patrick O’Malley, MD Urgent Message: Clinicians can apply best-practice care principles for lacerations of the hand in the urgent care setting by gaining a better understanding of the anatomy and wound repair techniques. Such competency can also help reduce non-indicated referrals to the emergency department. Citation: O’Malley P. Does This Finger Laceration Need Immediate Vascular Surgery Consultation Perspectives Based on an Urgent Care Patient Experience. J Urgent Care Med. 2024;18(4): 28-30 Key words: laceration, …
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Urgent message: Lacerations are a common reason for patients to present to urgent care. Data suggest not all providers are comfortable managing lacerations, however. Clinicians who need additional training should be afforded such in order to reduce acuity degradation and unnecessary referrals to the emergency room. David T. Ford, MD; Patrick M. O’Malley, MD; and Brantley Dick, MD Citation: Ford DT, O’Malley PM, Dick B. Assessing Urgent Care Clinics’ Readiness to manage a lip laceration. …
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Urgent message: Often, patients that could safely be treated for lacerations in the urgent care center are referred to the emergency room due to the quest for expediency, or even providers being out of practice with treating such wounds on site during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, doing so contributes to the degradation of acuity in urgent care while delaying care and raising costs. Anesthesia for wound repair can be achieved in many ways, typically with …
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Urgent message: Parallel lacerations or those that simply occur in close proximity pose a unique challenge for the urgent care clinician. Repairing either wound without inflicting further trauma on the other(s) requires both skill and familiarity with performing the appropriate technique. Patrick O’Malley, MD The Problem Lacerations in close proximity pose a unique challenge for the urgent care clinician. This situation is often encountered in the unfortunate setting of patients engaged in “cutting” behaviors. Narrow …
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