Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Drones Deliver Medication To Cleveland Clinic Patients

Cleveland Clinic has launched a medication home-delivery program that brings prescriptions to patients by drone, according to an announcement . The program currently serves patients within a 5-mile radius of the system’s main administrative campus, which functions as the drone operations hub, and the first patient deliveries were completed last week. What’s significant is that the health system plans to expand the service to additional locations and eventually add more items for drone transport, which …

HCA Adds To Its Texas Urgent Care Portfolio

Methodist Healthcare this week announced its acquisition of 18 Texas MedClinic urgent care centers, increasing its San Antonio urgent care network to 35 CareNow locations. Texas MedClinic was founded in 1982 and represented one of the state’s oldest and most recognizable independent urgent care brands. It was acquired in 2022 by Community Care Partners. Yet, the larger story is that Methodist’s parent company, HCA Healthcare, has acquired the entire Texas MedClinic portfolio of 40 urgent …

CUCM, UCCOP Shape Measures For Urgent Care Clinician Productivity

The Urgent Care Association recently brought together members of its Clinical Advisory Group, Strategic Advisory Group, and Delegates Council in Washington, D.C., for the annual thought leader meeting known as The Assembly. During the event, the College of Urgent Care Medicine (CUCM) and the Urgent Care College of Physicians (UCCOP) crafted a new position statement on clinician productivity. The leaders took a practical approach that uses a balanced, multidimensional framework, which incorporates patient volume, clinical …

AMA Doubles Down on Limits For Artificial Intelligence

The American Medical Association (AMA) developed a new set of policies at its recent annual meeting of the AMA House of Delegates to help ensure that AI is used to augment, not replace, physician decision-making, as outlined in a press release. While the policies aim to address a broad range of healthcare AI applications, they reinforce basic principles for payers and providers that use AI-powered tools. Not surprisingly, the association opposes the use of autonomous …

Urgent Care Compensates PAs Well: AAPA Survey

The American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) released results from a new survey examining salaries, hourly wages, and total compensation for physician associates—also known as physician assistants or PAs. Among practice specialties, urgent care PAs ranked sixth in median total compensation, earning $152,397 annually. In terms of compensation models, 58% of urgent care PAs receive a salary, and 65% are eligible to earn a bonus. Respondents reported a median annual base compensation of $141,449 and …

Local, National Efforts Take Aim at Rising Lyme Disease Cases

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced federal strategies to strengthen the national response to Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. HHS also pledged to reduce Lyme disease cases by 25% by 2035. As part of the new initiatives, a large pilot program led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and HHS will bring tick-control researchers together to deploy practical strategies to reduce tick populations on wildlife before they can …

Urgent Care Visits Outpace Retail Clinic Visits

According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 27.6% of Americans had at least 1 visit to an urgent care center in 2024. By comparison, only 19% of Americans reported visiting a retail health clinic in 2024, suggesting urgent care is the clear setting of choice for on-demand care. Looking at the populations by age, adults ages 18–64 represented the largest portion of the total urgent care visits (28.9%). Children …

Rhett Lankford Appointed AFC President

American Family Care (AFC) has announced the appointment of Rhett Lankford as president. In the role, Lankford will report to Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Morgan and help lead AFC’s ongoing expansion efforts. According to the announcement, Lankford brings more than 20 years of experience in healthcare operations and management services organizations (MSOs). Most recently, he served as senior vice president and general manager at NAPA Managed Services, where he oversaw anesthesia-MSO operations across hospitals, surgical …

Here’s What Fraudulent Billing Looks Like: Physician Indicted

A physician leader/owner of an urgent care clinic in Missouri was recently charged with billing fraud and illegal prescribing of controlled substances. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the alleged fraud scheme included the physician billing Medicare and Medicaid for medical services as if he had performed them himself—even though the care was actually provided by assistants who had not yet entered residency and thus were not authorized to file claims. It further alleges …

Retailers Shift To GLP-1 Programs—What It Means For Urgent Care

Big retailers are still attempting to shape new clinical lines of business, betting that some of them will eventually become profitable. Attention has now turned to GLP-1s. Yet against this backdrop, healthcare’s market reality is still leading to scaled-back expansion plans, noticeable exits, and massive financial write-downs for some retailers. The market is rather hit-or-miss right now. For example, Amazon continues to open primary care clinics through health system partnerships (including about 200 sites, according …

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