Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in Preoperative Patients Tested in an Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: The capability to identify patients with COVID-19 before they undergo a surgical procedure is essential to the safety of the patient, the surgical team, and postoperative staff. Given the fact that many patients with the virus never exhibit symptoms, proactive preoperative testing in the urgent care center may lower the risk of spread and help quantify the rate of asymptomatic infection. Sarah Greenwood, PA; Bronson Elizabeth Delasobera, MD; Amanda Joy, PA; Rita Malley, …

Just How Many Patients Are You Missing Out On by Not Being Child-Friendly?

Now more than ever, parents are mindful of where they bring their children for medical care—especially for immediate concerns like minor injuries and run-of-the-mill illness. The last thing they’ll want to do is sit for hours in the emergency room among patients who might be presenting with symptoms of COVID-19. If your urgent care center has a reputation for being child-friendly, it’s likely they’ll come your way. If not…well, they just might end up at …

Urgent Care’s Voice Must Be Heard on COVID-19 Vaccination Issues—so Raise Yours

Urgent care was overlooked by public health entities at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic—but the College of Urgent Care Medicine and the Urgent Care Association are fighting to ensure that never happens again. That’s of critical importance as cases continue to rise in various parts of the country and the vaccine continues to roll out. Most recently, UCA got in touch with every state vaccination administrator and/or governor’s public health advisor to advocate on …

Update: New Data Quantify Expected Protection After Healthcare Workers Recover from COVID-19

It’s been presumed—but not confirmed or quantified—that there’s a window of protection from further infection after an individual recovers from COVID-19. This is especially important when it comes to the healthcare workers who provide care for patients, including the invaluable team members in your urgent care center. Now data published online by The New England Journal of Medicine offers a glimmer of good (and validated) news, however: Antibodies protect most healthcare workers from reinfection for …

Emergency Rooms Are Overflowing Thanks to COVID-19—and One ED Chief Says Urgent Care Is the Solution

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring, many emergency rooms were slammed with patients who either had COVID-19 or were terrified they could have it. And while urban, hospital-aligned urgent care centers saw similar crippling volumes, many others had empty waiting rooms as patients who had relatively minor concerns stayed home out of fear they’d be exposed to the virus. Now as 2021 dawns there’s a greater understanding of who is really …

Patients Want to Know When They Can Get the COVID-19 Vaccine—but the Answer Is Complicated

Readers of mainstream media reports on availability of the COVID-19 vaccine are likely to be confused as to when they themselves will be eligible to get the shot. Where the Boston Herald just reported that the general population might be eligible for immunization “by February,” Forbes posted an article saying that a quarter of the world’s population won’t be able to get the vaccine until 2022. They’re both likely to be correct. The Herald’s source …

Update: CDC Clears More Groups to Receive the COVID-19 Vaccine

With coronavirus vaccinations now being administered to the first round of recipients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just issued a new advisory specifying groups who are deemed to be “safe” to receive the vaccine. Specifically, the CDC advises that adults with underlying health conditions and autoimmune conditions, as well as those with a history of Guillain-Barré syndrome and Bell’s palsy can be immunized. Last week, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted …

Be Vigilant for COVID-19 in Patients with Cancer; They’re at Greater Risk for Infection and Severe Disease

We know that immunocompromised patients are at increased risk for all manner of infection, including COVID-19. We also know that patients with cancer fall under that broad umbrella. However, new research indicates that cancer patients, specifically, are at greater risk for infection and subsequent mortality due to the virus. This phenomenon seems to be especially prevalent in those recently diagnosed with leukemia, lung cancer, and non–Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a study just published in JAMA …

Warn Patients with COVID-19: They Could Be in for a Longer Haul Than They Think

Some corners of the public seem to have fallen back into the notion that, while patients with comorbid conditions are at higher risk, a case of COVID-19 is not that different from a bad case of influenza—you feel bad for a week or two and then you’re back on your feet. New data published in the Annals of Internal Medicine should help you disavow them of that misconception, however. An article there indicates that up …

Be Alert for Patients Back from the UK—a New Coronavirus Variant There Could Be Worse Than the Existing One

The United States is already grappling with a deadly resurgence of the COVID-19 virus, but news from the United Kingdom indicates we could see a dire situation turn even worse if we’re not careful. The government there, perhaps wary of repeating mistakes that allowed the virus to run rampant last spring, has already implemented a partial shutdown of nonessential businesses and services in order to discourage widespread contact among the public. This is not “just” …