Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

The Urgent Care Marketplace Just Keeps Getting Hotter

JUCM News readers are well aware that there’s been tremendous merger-and-acquisition activity in the urgent care marketplace in 2022—and it’s certainly not cooling off in the midsummer period. Most recently, WellNow Urgent Care acquired Physicians Immediate Care and its 55 urgent care and occupational medicine facilities in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. That brings the total number of WellNow centers to 128 in six states. And Fast Pace Health just completed its previously announced investment in …

Remind Patients—and Parents—that Even ‘Natural’ Therapies Can Be Hazardous

Too many patients assume that a supplement labeled as “natural” is unlikely to cause possibly dangerous side effects. That risk is compounded when the person taking the supplement is a child. The potential for negative side effects and toxicity is underscored in an article just published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. In it, the authors cite data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing a 530% increase in pediatric melatonin …

Rural Hospital Are Shutting Down—Leaving Plenty of Slack for Urgent Care to Pick Up

Around 60 million Americans live in areas defined as “rural,” with local hospitals being the most viable option for care—assuming they can find one. That’s getting increasingly difficult, however, as illustrated in an article just published by Becker’s Hospital Review. Since 2011, 76 rural hospitals have shut down across the country, leaving too many patients in a precarious position when it comes to their healthcare. Texas leads the way with 15 closures, but 21 other …

COVID Cases Are Resurging—but This Time No One Is Panicking

A quick look at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 tracker reveals that new cases have been rising slowly for more than a month, with hospitalization rates rising even more steadily. Some cities, such as Chicago, are raising their official warning levels to “high.” Los Angeles is looking at reinstituting a mask mandate for indoor spaces. What’s missing is the widespread sense of crisis, or even panic, that has gripped previous surges in …

Will a New Rule Expose Too Much About the Cost of Care in Your UC Operation?

A new rule (effective July 1) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services now requires health insurance and self-insured employers to post the rates they’ve negotiated with providers. While that could mean unprecedented public access to what was previously eyes-only for insurance industry insiders, the catch is that data posted as *.json (JavaScript Object Notation) files can only be machine-read—essentially making the data inaccessible to all but academics and professionals. So, Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc, …

Patients Are Becoming Better Informed on Data Collection Practices; Make Sure You Are, Too

It’s unlikely that patients visiting an urgent care center read every word of every document they have to sign before they can actually see a provider. They just want to get in and get relief from whatever complaint motivated them to be there as fast as possible So, they may be a little alarmed when ads for products that somehow relate to the discussion they had with the provider in the privacy of the exam …

You Can’t Afford to Miss the Signs of Tick-Borne Disease—and You May Be Seeing a Lot of It

It’s high season for tick bites and related diseases. As an article just published by Patient Care reminds us, there’s far too much misinformation leading the public (and probably some clinicians) to fail to recognize the signs and dangers of Lyme disease. For example, patients ultimately diagnosed with Lyme disease do not always have the telltale “bullseye” rash. Further, in spite of its Connecticut-based moniker, its spread is not limited to the East Coast. And …

Consider Asking the Next Male with an Ocular Complaint if He Takes ED Medication

It’s not uncommon for patients with nonemergent eye complaints to present to urgent care. What might not be top of mind for male patients with ocular symptoms, however, is whether use of erectile dysfunction medications could be the root of the problem. An article recently published by JAMA Network might move you to consider it, though. “Regular use of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors for [ED] was associated with increased risks of serous retinal detachment (SRD), …

Update: Pharmacists Keep Gaining Prescribing Authority. The Question Is, Is That Good for Patients?

JUCM News readers may recall controversy concerning the COVID-19 Test to Treat process, wherein pharmacists were singled out as providers qualified to participate in a speech by President Biden, followed quickly by a clarification from the Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response that urgent care centers who meet the relevant criteria may also qualify to participate. That was far from a one-off when looking at pharmacists being granted …

Creating Protocols and Making Headlines Post Publication in JUCM

You may recall reading an original research article on a new protocol for evaluating chest pain in urgent care in the April issue of JUCM. It made such a splash that the protocol and the authors, Lorilea Johnson, FNP-BC, DNP and Diane Smith, DNP, RN have been showing up in local media in the Cape Girardeau, MO area. WPSD Local 6 news and the Daily American Republic, for example, each reported on the innovative protocol …

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