Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

New Validated Data Suggest You Should Update Your Approach to CPR

You probably learned how to administer CPR before you even entered med school. It’s not exactly a complex medical procedure, after all. It’s so simple, in fact, that very little clinical research has gone into assessing whether there’s a better, more effective way to do it—until now. The National Institutes of Health Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium tested various combinations of chest compression frequency and chest compression depth to assess the optimal method. The research took into …

Awareness and Usage of PrEP Are at an All-Time High. Should You Be Offering It?

Around 90% of men who have sex with men say they’re aware of the availability and purpose of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV transmission—and usage among that population rose five-fold (from 6% to 35%) between 2014 and 2017, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nonetheless, overall usage in terms of numbers remains relatively low, due in part to the reluctance of some healthcare providers to offer the necessary patient …

Measures to Keep Emergency Rooms Safe and Secure May Drive Still More Patients to Urgent Care

A North Carolina hospital system is installing metal detectors, limiting elevator access in specific areas within its facility, and hiring armed guards to keep watch in its emergency rooms in the wake of incidents ranging from an armed patient roaming the halls to a distraught mother barricading herself and her son (a patient) in a hospital room. While it’s laudable that they’re doing what they feel is necessary to keep patients and staff safe, such …

Barely a Week into the ‘Season,’ Influenza Shuts Down a School for an Entire Week

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends all Americans who are eligible for a flu shot (meaning anyone over the age of 6 months, for the most part) get one before the end of this month. That’s too late to prevent a serious outbreak in Baton Rouge, LA, though, where a school saw 38% of its upper-grade students body stricken with flu-like symptoms. While not all cases were confirmed to be influenza infection, the …

Millennials Need Urgent Care Now More Than Ever—Even If They Don’t Know It Yet

Millennials’ preference for walk-in care compared with traditional, office-based primary care has been well documented. And the fact that Americans born between 1980 and 1996 are visiting urgent care centers in ever-growing numbers makes sense; they don’t like the idea of making appointments or having an ongoing relationship with one medical provider, and really don’t like going to see a provider unless they’re sick—and then they want to see one now. So, the news that …

Flu Season Carries Potential Benefits—and Risks—for Occupational Medicine Providers

If you offer occupational medicine services, it’s likely a heavily promoted flu clinic is an annual event. (And if not, why not?) Some providers and companies are taking that a step further by offering free flu shots to employees’ family members, as well. The benefit is multifold: Employees see this as proof that their employer cares about them; you get to introduce yourself and your services to more prospective patients; and the entire practice promotes …

Not Making Headway in Promoting Vaccinations to Patients? Try Changing Your Style

Some patients are eager to take your advice regarding vaccine-preventable diseases. Others not so much. That doesn’t mean they’re unreachable, however. A study just published in Pediatrics indicates how you approach the subject can make a difference. Focusing on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, the researchers found that acceptance rates were higher when the clinician used a “presumptive” communication style—making a strong recommendation based on the presumption that vaccination will be acceptable to the patient, as …

Free JUCM Webinar: Avoiding Common, Costly, and High-Risk Missed Diagnoses

“Everybody makes mistakes” couldn’t be more trite when you’re talking about the practice of medicine. And in urgent care medicine, where the provider could be faced with anything from an ingrown toenail to a life-threatening MI that really should be in the emergency room, the margin of error is razor thin. Missed diagnoses are especially foreboding, in terms of both the patient’s health and your legal risk. Some are more common than others and, therefore, …

Keep Valued Occ Med Clients by Helping Them Measure the Value of Your Services

You’ve done the hard part—selling your occupational medicine services and delivering on your promise of providing excellent care—but now you have to ensure the client recognizes the value you bring to the table. After all, return-on-investment is only as good as the data demonstrating it. What about return-on-value (ROV), though? As noted in a recent article in Milwaukee Business News’s Biz Times, the subtle difference may point decision-makers in slightly different directions. You should seize …

Help Patients Understand OTC Tamiflu Doesn’t Negate the Need for Urgent Care Flu Visits

With Sanofi now tasked with negotiating approval of Tamiflu to be sold over-the-counter, and with the 2019–2020 influenza season off to an early start, urgent care providers need to put on their health educator hats to both ensure patient safety and protect profitability during one of the busiest times of the year. It’s likely patients will think they have fewer worries than ever about the flu, but nothing could be further from the truth. First …

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