Practice Management
Recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that people who are not vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus are five times more likely to get COVID-19 and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized if they do get infected. At the same time, according to a new report published in Lancet Infectious Disease, people who get COVID-19 in spite of being vaccinated are 50% less likely to experience “long” COVID-19. The research, …
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We tend to be dismissive of patients who express concern about the safety of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines—all of which have been shown to reduce transmission and severity of the virus, with low incidence of any side effects. While the motives of some of those individuals may be suspect, there are some who are genuinely fearful that their perceived consequences of getting the vaccine are more compelling than the proven benefit. Those who have …
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Urgent message: Syncope in pediatric patients may be attributed to a wide variety of sources. As such, it is essential to keep a broad differential and to eliminate potentially life-threatening etiologies. Nehal Bhandari, MD, FAAP and Abbas Zaidi, MD, FAAP CASE PRESENTATION A 12-year-old previously healthy female presents to urgent care with several episodes of “blacking out” over the past 4 days. Each episode has occurred when she stands up from a sitting or supine …
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As many parts of the country approach caseloads and transmission rates similar to what they faced at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some urgent care centers are likewise returning to emergency procedures they established to help reduce risk for infection of patients and staff. Cook Children’s Hospital in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, for one, is closing many of its centers earlier than usual, funneling late-night patients to a single location. They’re also keeping patients …
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Most public health efforts to contain spread of COVID-19 have been just that—public. It’s not without good reason, given how easily the virus can pass from one person to another and the great number of people most of us are exposed to every day. However, new data just published by JAMA Network Open should serve as a reminder that what we’re exposed to when we’re out of the house becomes what we expose our family …
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Among the myriad reasons people are declining to receive the COVID-19 vaccine is concern that getting vaccinated would increase their risk for blood clots. Like many rationalizations of the vaccine-hesitant, it’s based on misinterpretation of a nugget of truth. Relaying the findings of an article just published in the British Medical Journal might be useful in helping you set the record straight. The fact is that vaccination with either the AstraZeneca/Oxford or the Pfizer BioNTech …
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The currently available vaccines against COVID-19 have been performing admirably against the virus in general—but there’s a precipitous drop-off in effectiveness when it comes to the Delta variant, according to new data published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Overall effectiveness among the three vaccines had been 91% previously, while it’s only 66% since the Delta variant became the dominant strain in the United States. On the flip side, it’s important to underscore to patients …
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Hospital systems in Texas are so overwhelmed with patients presenting with symptoms of COVID-19 that many operators have opted to close offsite emergency rooms in order to more fully staff EDs at their main sites—possibly leaving communities in the lurch when they need walk-in care not related to the virus. According to a report from the Associated Press, Memorial Hermann Health System, St. Luke’s Health, Texas Health Hospital, and Hunt Regional Healthcare all temporarily closed …
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As the Delta variant continues to undo much of the progress the U.S. has made in coming back from the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are still uncovering things we never understood about the virus to begin with. The latest revelation, according to research released by the Journal of Gerontology, is that adults 75 years of age and older may present with a constellation of symptoms that look very different from those younger patients display. Perhaps most …
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With the Delta variant continuing to increase the number of COVID-19 diagnoses and hospitalizations across the U.S., many states and cities are returning to the mask mandates that proved so controversial—and rage-inducing—earlier in the pandemic. While the problem hasn’t made headlines here yet, a report released by the British Medical Association reveals that physicians in Northern Ireland have been seeing increasing incidence of aggression from patients who refuse to wear masks during appointments. Regardless of …
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