Practice Management
This is not going to be your typical flu season. At best, patients will flood healthcare facilities to get their flu shots early. The worst-case scenario is that they’ll shy away from immunization under the misguided assumption that it could leave them in a weakened state or expose them to people with COVID-19. Recognizing the overlap, as well as the reality that people who work in urgent care centers and other healthcare facilities are not …
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We all know urgent care took some hard knocks at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lack of testing supplies and patient fear added up to a serious drop in patient visits. What might not be so obvious is that other practice settings may have it even worse. A news report that aired on WTKR television in coastal Virginia/northeastern North Carolina recently revealed that some primary care practices perceive that they’re losing patients to urgent …
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The nature of urgent care presents daily opportunities to provide care for patients you’ve never seen before and may never see again. The downside is there’s no history with such patients—and no chance to build rapport and establish the clear communication that comes from familiarity. Now remember that you’re speaking to each other through masks. Even if dosing is specified on that bottle of pain medication, did they hear you say it can only be …
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Urgent care is coming back strong after initial setbacks at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, tests were in short supply. Then patients were afraid of visiting healthcare facilities in general unless it was a dire emergency, over concerns that they could get infected there. Visits plummeted. At the same time, of course, the retail business has been sustaining unprecedented economic damage. They’re rebounding, too, albeit more slowly than urgent care. Now the industries …
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As with all things related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the question of whether children are as prone to infection as adults—and their ability to transmit it—has been widely debated. As JUCM News readers know, there is evidence that asymptomatic children are more capable of transmitting the virus than some severely ill adults. On the other hand are data from a study just published in JAMA Pediatrics, indicating that the likelihood of younger patients infecting others …
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There’s no denying that Americans are not as free as we once were to travel around the country since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Many states have implemented rules stating that visitors from certain other states have to quarantine for a couple of weeks—or produce proof that they aren’t infected—before they’re permitted to interact with residents. While it’s debatable how enforceable those rules are, it’s certain they put a damper on plans for anything beyond essential …
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The urgent care industry got the short end of the stick in the early days of testing for COVID-19—which means urgent care patients were also left wanting for testing locations in too many areas. With the pandemic still raging and flu season approaching, the Urgent Care Association is working with the Convenient Care Association to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself when it comes to vaccination. The two organizations are trying to raise the volume on …
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Just recently, a woman in Illinois filed what is thought to be the first COVID-19-related wrongful death suit against an employer, alleging that her mother died after being infected with the virus by her father—who is believed to have gotten it at the meat-processing plant where he works. The case is being referred to in the mainstream media as a “take-home” suit, meaning illness was allegedly contracted in one location then brought home for transmission …
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One evening last week a man presented to a Columbus, OH urgent care center after an altercation in which he was shot in the abdomen. Local news reports say it was over some sort of “transaction” that the victim declined to close. Gunfire and the life-threatening injury ensured. Ultimately, the man was transported from the urgent care center to the hospital, but the disposition isn’t what should make this case interesting to you. Urgent care …
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First, the good news: According to the latest UCA/CUCM COVID-19 survey of how urgent care centers are faring during the pandemic, 61% of respondents are “actively hiring,” while another 7% are “actively planning for needs, but not yet hiring.” Sixteen percent say they’re “awaiting actual volume surges to make a decision” while another 16% “do not anticipate a need to change our staffing model.” Those that are waiting to see more patients return may not …
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