Practice Management
The war in Ukraine is imposing severe consequences beyond the obvious death and destruction in-country. While many Ukrainians have stayed put in order to take up arms against Russian advances, others—often with children in tow—are fleeing to Poland. While the Poles continue to welcome the refugees, the mounting numbers are likely to result in a healthcare crisis sooner than later. The U.S. urgent care community is distinguishing itself well by pitching in to assist, both …
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Residents of a sleepy Pittsburgh suburb were likely shocked last week to find the parking lot of a local business taken over by FBI vehicles—even more so when they discovered that the building, occupied by an urgent care center that had by all accounts been an indispensable community asset throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, was essentially taken over by agents. The doors were locked to keep patients out, and opened only long enough for agents to …
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Being freed from pressure to social distance and, more and more now, from being required to wear a mask in public spaces is reopening a lot of doors for people who’ve been isolated for too long. It’s natural to assume that, at least for some portion of the population, we could see an uptick in rates of sexually transmitted infection. Whether coincidentally or by design, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest update on …
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Urgent care operators know all too well that visits dropped precipitously at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as patients stayed home rather than risk exposure in the waiting room or from clinicians. By June of 2020, an article in Managed Healthcare Executive reminds us, around 41% of adults begged off visiting a healthcare provider. Whether valid or not, patient concern before the advent of vaccination and testing for COVID-19 was understandable. The greater concern, …
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As JUCM News has reported, each week brings a new wave of school systems doing away with mask mandates in concert with still-falling caseloads of COVID-19. While that’s generally regarded as good news, some parents and school officials are collectively holding their breath to see if we see a new spike in positive tests or absenteeism. Ongoing efforts to ensure as many eligible children as possible get vaccinated have the potential to help in this …
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Barely a week into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, supply chain experts are warning that already-shaky delivery of essential goods from around the world—including just about everything you need in your supply room—is likely to get worse as the crisis wears on. An article just published by MedPageToday notes that the issue isn’t necessarily items sourced from Ukraine or being embargoed from Russia, but closed airspace corridors, disrupted shipping channels, and the ripple effects that emanate …
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An elderly lady who longer drives and has a scorching sore throat might be inclined to call an ambulance to take her to the emergency room. Clearly, it’s not an emergency but she’s got to see someone. In most places across the U.S. the end result will be a trip to the ED, which will have her waiting—for hours, maybe—and result in higher-than-necessary charges to Medicare. Under a new initiative in Seattle, however, it would …
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If you watched President Biden’s State of the Union speech, you probably took note of changes planned for the “test to treat” initiative, in which patients can visit specified clinics to receive a COVID-19 test and then immediate treatment if warranted. Though the president called out pharmacy-based clinics as a specific example of such locations, the Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has since clarified that urgent …
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Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American workplace has been undergone a rapid evolution. At first it was incumbent upon employers to find a way to maximize productivity when many employees were confined to their homes. Needless to say, that was a more viable option for some than others. Urgent care has been in an unusual position in that some team members can work virtually (administrators, telemedicine providers) while others really have to …
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There has been a concentrated effort over the past few years to raise awareness of overprescribing of antibiotics. As you know, it’s not just a matter of spending unnecessarily on drugs that aren’t called for, but also a risk to public health due to growing antibiotic resistance. And yet, every year new data seem to emerge indicating that this problem is just not going away. Now a study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report …
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