Published on
Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, President of Urgent Care Consultants and Senior Editor of JUCM.
The Southeast Regional Urgent Care Association (SERUCA) 2025 conference, held November 14–15, 2025, in New Orleans, focused on urgent care’s most pressing challenges: technology, workforce well-being, and clinical quality through stewardship. This article highlights key takeaways for operators, vendors, and clinicians.
Promoting Clinical Excellence Through Stewardship
Stewardship was a recurring theme. In a session on antibiotic use, Steven Goldberg, MD, emphasized urgent care’s frontline role in combating antibiotic resistance, noting that roughly 30% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions—and up to 50% for respiratory complaints—are inappropriate, contributing to about 2.8 million resistant infections and 35,000 deaths annually. He reported that urgent care antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) can cut unnecessary prescribing by 15–22% without increasing emergency department visits or hospitalizations when education is paired with EHR prompts, point-of-care testing, and shared decision making.
A companion session on “Steroid Stewardship” by J. Bernie Short, MD, drew similar lessons. Short noted that systemic corticosteroids are often given for conditions with little evidence of benefit, exposing patients to harms ranging from long term metabolic disease to short term risks like venous thromboembolism and sepsis. He emphasized that not every case of acute bronchitis or low back pain requires a steroid burst, recommending alternatives such as inhaled corticosteroids for asthma maintenance and informed consent when higher risk therapies are considered.
Innovating Care Delivery with Telemedicine and AI
Innovation in care delivery was another major theme at SERUCA. Michael Rodi, MD, Chief Medical Officer at MedAccess, described how his system embedded telemedicine across more than 50 clinics to manage low-acuity visits during respiratory virus surges. Routine encounters—refills, minor infections, and result reviews—were shifted to virtual visits, freeing onsite teams to focus on sicker or more complex patients. Rodi reported smoother flow, shorter waits, and less provider stress. Tele-triage kept higher risk patients in the clinic while others were safely managed at home. Telehealth, he argued, has moved from a pandemic stopgap to a strategic capacity expansion tool, with emerging opportunities in AI-assisted remote diagnostics and app-based care hubs.
Artificial intelligence itself drew significant interest. In “AI: The Urgent Care Solution,” Nita Korns, MD, explained how AI-powered speech recognition is already trimming documentation time by up to 90%. She also highlighted AI tools that optimize staffing, reduce billing errors, and automate call center triage, potentially saving the industry an estimated $18 billion in administrative costs. Korns stressed the need to address bias, security, and “AI literacy” when deploying these tools. The consensus: AI should augment—not replace—the human touch.
Confronting Workforce Challenges: Burnout and Safety
Workforce well-being was a core concern throughout SERUCA. In a session on burnout, Sabrina Stansfield, MD, noted that nearly half of U.S. healthcare providers report symptoms of burnout, while urgent care continues to grow—now including more than 14,000 clinics and 27,000 clinicians. She stressed that burnout drivers differ across generations, from tech fatigue in older clinicians to workload and mentorship gaps in younger staff. Stansfield encouraged leaders to avoid “one size fits all” fixes and instead tailor solutions such as flexible scheduling, scribes or AI support to reduce clerical burden, and leadership practices that reinforce purpose and recognition.
Safety concerns extended beyond stress to physical risk. In “Violence in Southeastern Healthcare,” Elizabeth Vaughn, MD, shared data that 8 in 10 healthcare workers experience workplace violence during their careers. Vaughn and security consultant Lisa Jones urged clinics to treat violence prevention as a formal program, not an informal expectation. Recommended steps included visible zero tolerance and “no weapons” signage, facility risk assessments, de-escalation training, and clear incident reporting processes, reinforced in some states by tougher penalties for assaulting healthcare workers.
Adapting Through Leadership and Service Expansion
Several sessions focused on how leaders can steer organizations through change. In a talk on change management, Tara Stamer, MD, offered a straightforward framework: define the problem; design a solution; communicate the “why;” support staff with training and tools; and then hard wire the change through monitoring and feedback. She underscored the need to address “change fatigue” with empathy and clarity and recommended simple technology tools—such as RSS readers and curated news feeds—to help leaders stay on top of trends without overload.
Looking at growth strategies, John Koehler, MD, discussed occupational medicine as a natural extension of urgent care. Services include department of transportation exams, pre-employment and drug screening, respirator clearance, and workplace injury care. Koehler emphasized that success depends on aligning with employer priorities such as quick turnaround, clear communication, and tracking of metrics like return to work rates. By tailoring services and reporting to business clients, urgent care centers can diversify revenue and deepen local employer relationships.
Enhancing Patient Safety and Risk Management
Patient safety and risk management tied many themes together. In “Risk, Litigation and Liability,” Tracey Davidoff, MD, Lisa Bishop, DNP, and attorney Lindsey Gelormini reviewed malpractice data showing that diagnostic error is the most common allegation against emergency and urgent care clinicians. They noted that only a small share of cases that reach trial end in plaintiff verdicts (about 7%), but those awards average more than $800,000. The panel urged organizations to invest in education on high risk presentations, build reliable follow-up and referral systems, and clarify documentation and supervision structures, particularly when nurse practitioners and physician assistants practice with collaborating physicians.
Clinical workshops translated those concepts to frontline practice. In “When Airbags Deploy But Stories Don’t Add Up,” Shelley L. Janssen, MD, MBA, reminded attendees that urgent care often evaluates patients after motor vehicle collisions or falls. She highlighted decision tools such as the Canadian C Spine Rule and NEXUS criteria to decide when imaging or emergency department transfer is warranted, especially for older or anticoagulated patients.
For dermatologic complaints, Joe Toscano, MD, in “Derma Dilemma: Skin in a Nutshell,” coached clinicians on a structured approach to undifferentiated rashes and early recognition of red flag patterns such as Stevens–Johnson Syndrome. Toscano also reinforced “steroid stewardship” in skin disease—discouraging routine injectable steroids, reserving short oral bursts for select cases, and using the lowest effective topical potency for the shortest duration.
Conclusion: Stronger Together in Urgent Care
By the close of SERUCA 2025, the conference’s “Stronger Together” theme felt earned. Across sessions, speakers called for higher quality, evidence based care through stewardship; smarter use of telehealth and AI to ease pressure on teams; and deliberate strategies to combat burnout and violence. For urgent care leaders, vendors, and clinicians, the message was clear: success will hinge on integrating innovation with human centered leadership and treating urgent care as a coordinated front line of accessible, safe, and sustainable care.
