Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Update: The Pendulum Swings Again Regarding Myocarditis and COVID-19 Vaccine

Multiple studies have shown mixed results regarding increased risk for myocarditis in people who’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19. Most recently, JUCM News shared that one study actually did reveal increased incidence of myocarditis among some people who got the COVID-19 shot, but there was insufficient evidence to establish a cause-and-effect relationship. Another month brings yet another study with a new perspective, however. This one, just published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows …

Update: NPs Now Have Full Practice Authority in a Majority of States. Is Urgent Care Ahead of the Game?

Just a week after we shared the news that New York had become the 25th state to grant nurse practitioners full practice authority (FPA), Kansas has followed suit, tipping the scales to the majority of U.S. states now allowing NPs to deliver care without physician supervision. Proponents claim that broadening the types of healthcare providers authorized to provide care to patients independently also broadens access to healthcare—something that is badly needed in many communities across …

Will Walgreens’ New Drone Delivery Service Crash and Burn on Takeoff?

A new mode of delivering certain drugstore goods is literally ready to take flight in the communities of Frisco and Little Elm, TX, as Walgreens is taking a flyer on drone service from Wing, a subsidiary of Google. There’s no doubt the initiative scores a lot of points as a novelty and on the convenience scale—the company claims items can be delivered within 10 minutes—but there are significant drawbacks. For one thing, only around 100 …

As More Restrictions and Mandates Relax, Another COVID-19 Variant Rears Its Head

Mask mandates continue to fall by the wayside across industries and states in the U.S., simultaneous with an uptick in the number of COVID-19 infections—led by the BA.2 variant at this point, but also fueled by yet another new variant being called BA.2.12.1. The New York State Department of Health, for one, has blamed BA.2.12.1 for a recent spike upstate. Public health officials there estimate that the latest version of the virus is up to …

Wrong Number? Telemedicine May Actually Increase the Likelihood of Reporting to the ED

Proponents of telemedicine have reasoned that being able to see a healthcare provider virtually is more convenient and less expensive than trudging over to the closest emergency room, where a patient is likely to sit for hours and run up an astronomical bill for something simple like a sore throat. While the latter may be true (as urgent care professionals are well aware), a new study published by JAMA Network Open suggests that telehealth usage …

UC Providers in the Age of COVID Have a Lot in Common with Combat Vets—Like Moral Injury

It’s not uncommon to see healthcare workers described as being “on the frontlines” of battling the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a militaristic analogy that hits closer to home than one might appreciate at first. According to an article just published by the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the potential for moral injury among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic is very similar to rates seen in military veterans who saw action in post-9/11 conflicts. Based on …

Adolescent Overdose Deaths Are Up—but Usage Is Not. If You Don’t Know Why, How Can You Help?

What at first appears paradoxical—that illicit drug use among U.S. adolescents was relatively stable between January 2010 and June 2021 while overdose deaths increased—has a perfectly rational, if disturbing, explanation according to a new research letter published by the Journal of the American Medical Association: It’s the substances themselves that make the difference. In 2010 30.2% of 10th graders admitted to using illicit drugs; by 2020 the figure was 30.4%, though by June 2021 only …

COVID-19 Reverses Trend (Again) with Rising Cases and Hospitalizations

After weeks (or months, in some states) of declines in COVID-19 caseloads and related hospitalizations and deaths, more than half of U.S. states reported an increase in the number of infected residents, with hospitalizations following suit in 10 states according to data collected by The New York Times. Cases are up 10% nationally over the past 2 weeks. In spite of that, however, hospitalizations are down nationally by 17% and there has been no increase …

Testing for STIs Isn’t Keeping Pace with Sexual Activity Among Younger Patients

We’ve told you about an uptick in sexually transmitted infection among adults since relaxation of social distancing rules in municipalities across the U.S. Unfortunately, that trend could soon extend to younger patients as well, if data newly published in the journal Pediatrics is any indication. Despite national guidelines that recommend annual testing for certain STIs in specific segments of the adolescent population, only 20% of sexually active high school students say they were tested for …

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