Practice Management
We’ve become accustomed to the fact that outcomes projections, testing methods, and information about mode of SARS-CoV-2 infection change regularly. Add symptoms to the list of moving targets regarding COVID-19, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added several new ones based on growing data. In addition to fever, cough and shortness of breath, the CDC now says urgent care providers and other clinicians need to be vigilant for chills, repeated shaking with …
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In the absence of evidence-based guidelines, clinicians in urgent care and other settings have been relying largely on their own clinical experience in caring for patients with COVID-19. That’s about to change, though, as the National Institutes of Health has released guidelines drawn from published and preliminary data and the advice of a panel of physicians, statisticians, and public health experts. It’s important to note amid speculation that certain drugs and nondrug agents “could be” …
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As large, national retail chains announce they’re ready to test anyone concerned they could have been exposed to COVID-19, a glaring question arises: Why is there no mention of urgent care? One reason is that drive-up testing centers, often staged in the store’s parking lot, are supported by the federal government and state health departments and offer testing at no cost to the customer. Lacking that funding, an urgent care operator would be hard pressed …
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Even as some states report that the much-discussed “curve” is actually starting to flatten, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns against perceiving that to mean the worst is over for the U.S. CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD suggested that a second wave could actually be worse than this one if it occurs in the fall, just as the next influenza season is getting started—which some health officials and researchers say is a distinct …
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We’ve heard anecdotally that some urgent care operations are experiencing serious shortfalls in patient volume, while others are “all hands on deck” in dealing with patients who have, or are concerned they have, COVID-19. To get a better handle on how the industry as a whole is faring, the Urgent Care Association started surveying members on a weekly basis. In the initial iteration, 82% of respondents reported that all their centers were open while 18% …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a new advisory clarifying steps that should be taken to decrease risk of COVID-19 infection in critical infrastructure workers—while also reconfirming that those workers “be permitted to continue work following potential exposure to COVID-19, provided they remain asymptomatic and additional precautions are implemented to protect them and the community. Interim Guidance for Implementing Safety Practices for Critical Infrastructure Workers Who May Have Had Exposure to a …
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Every night at 7 pm in some cities, residents come out on their front stoops or hang out their windows to cheer, clap, and bang pots and pans together in a show of appreciation for frontline healthcare workers and first responders. Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care may be going them one better by giving those workers priority access to care at 52 urgent care centers in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County, NY during …
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After an outright cure for or a vaccine to prevent COVID-19, the Holy Grail of the pandemic is a reliable method of testing patients who may have been infected. A new study out of the University of Insubria, Varese, Italy shows that testing saliva could be as reliable as anything else. Researchers got positive tests from their first salivary swab in all 25 patients who took part. Interestingly, two of those patients had negative pharyngeal …
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Even urgent care providers who have not been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus are feeling the ill effects of the pandemic. According to a new article in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (subscription required), clinicians who are working longer-than-usual shifts or working shifts out of their normal routine (such as filling in on an overnight emergency room shift or taking on 12-hour telemedicine stretches) are more prone to poor or insufficient sleep and increased …
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We’ve all been operating under the guidance that 6 feet could be considered relatively “safe” distancing between individuals in order to slow the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, new data from Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China indicate that the transmission distance might be twice that or more—at least 4 meters, or 13.1 feet-plus according to a study of air samples there. The researchers based their findings on swab samples from the intensive care unit …
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