Clinical

With advice on COVID-19 seemingly changing several times a day, it’s essential to not let the volume of information overwhelm your ability to take care of your patients. Recognizing that, JUCM convened a webinar to highlight the utility of chest x-rays, among other methods, to help distinguish patients who have COVID-19 from those who merely have similar symptoms. Speakers Ana Echenique, MD, DABR and Michael Weinstock, MD led a discussion on red flags for the …

Patients (as well as relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances) have endless questions for urgent care providers about transmission of COVID-19. As the number of cases mounts many are likely to retrace their steps, mentally, to think about whom they’ve been in contact with, and how long ago they may have been around a large group of people. This begs the question, How long do I need to be concerned?, especially if they know someone who has …

Urgent care centers devoted to pediatrics and women’s health are growing in number and appeal around the country. Now an urgent care operator in Boston is trying another niche service using the urgent care model: care for patients addicted to opioids. Working in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (which provided a $2.9 million grant) and the Boston Public Health Commission, the Boston Medical Center Opioid Urgent Care Center promises to do an …

Some among the public may view the term social distancing as being sentenced to boredom for an indefinite period, regardless of the intended result of mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Others might welcome it as an opportunity for solitude or spending time with their nuclear family. For a few of your patients and prospective patients, though, the thought of being more or less housebound with minimal contact with the outside world could bring about acute …

With the COVID-19 situation changing by the minute—literally, at times—urgent care providers may feel swamped with competing demands for testing, treatment, and reassuring patients who really don’t have any related worries. Add to that the fact that there’s been little definitive direction from federal health agencies on how to treat patients who do have COVID-19. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a directive that could be helpful—both for patient care and …

Patients experiencing atrial fibrillation for the first time sometimes mistake their symptoms for a heart attack and call 911 or rush off to the emergency room. Once they’ve gone through it a few times, and understand that AFib is not high-risk in the short term, they tend to take a more relaxed approach. Some simply call their cardiologist or electrophysiologist so they can track the event. Others may be inclined to visit an urgent care …

COVID-19 is capturing the public’s attention more than any other health crisis right now. The concern, warranted or not, is that a worldwide pandemic will prove more deadly than any other outbreak in recent history. A more immediate, albeit secondary concern, as noted in an article just published online by Forbes, is that a variety of factors could conspire to create dangerous drug shortages. According to the Food and Drug Administration, one medication is already …

Urgent care as a whole has been at the forefront of trying to turn around the trend of overprescribing antibiotics. The Urgent Care Association even offers an Antibiotic Stewardship Commendation to urgent care operators who meet select criteria demonstrating responsible, effective use of antibiotics, and has an online Antibiotic Stewardship Toolkit. Now the UCA’s partner on the toolkit, George Washington University, is launching a new initiative called Be an Antibiotic Hero with the Antibiotic Resistance …

Millions of confirmed cases and thousands of deaths aren’t enough to convince a lot of Americans that many of their beliefs about influenza and vaccination are just plain wrong. So, more than half fail to get a flu shot and leave themselves and loved ones at increased risk. Clearly, the healthcare community in general has to do a better job of countermanding erroneous conceptions. New data released by the American Academy of Family Physicians may …

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that 92 children have died from influenza so far this season—the highest number of deaths for this point in the season in a decade. Ominously, the CDC also points out that a second wave of flu outbreaks has been gaining momentum over the past few weeks. Overall, flu has killed an estimated 14,000 people this season, out of roughly 26 million confirmed cases. …