Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Massachusetts Hospitals Push for More State Control of Urgent Care

We told you recently that legislators in Massachusetts have again picked up efforts to impose new regulations and licensing standards on urgent care operators there—all of which would result in operators paying more to the state, of course. The crux of the argument is whether urgent care centers operate more like hospitals (in which case they would have to be licensed as such) or like physician offices. Now the president and CEO of the Massachusetts …

Giving Pharmacists Prescribing Authority Could Be Risky—for Patients and for Urgent Care

As efforts to grant pharmacists authority to prescribe certain medications pick up in some states, concern is growing among urgent care insiders that such a change in the clinical landscape could actually be detrimental to patients’ health, and certainly degrade the value that urgent care and other provider-based settings have to offer. The potential risk to patients was illustrated in a recent New York Times article that detailed how overwhelmed pharmacists already are, working long …

Data: Antibiotic Stewardship Efforts Don’t Seem to Apply to Some Medicaid Patients

Urgent care has taken a leadership position among healthcare settings when it comes to fighting antibiotic resistance. The Urgent Care Association initiated an Antibiotic Stewardship Commendation Program, wherein urgent care operators are recognized for fulfilling certain criteria demonstrating responsible antibiotic prescribing. And some large urgent care companies have instituted strict internal controls to ensure antibiotics are prescribed according to accepted guidelines. All those efforts, geared toward stemming antibiotic resistance, may be being undermined by inappropriate …

ZOOM+Care Takes a Bold Gamble by Joining Federal Free PrEP Program

Pre-exposure prophylactic treatment against HIV (PrEP) has been a controversial topic in urgent care. While the lifesaving potential of the once-daily pill is undeniable, some operators and clinicians believe offering it encourages high-risk behaviors. Others say it’s too difficult to receive fair compensation for the high level of patient education and follow-up that’s required. Some, on the other hand, say the hassle is worth the satisfaction of doing what one can to curb a serious …

Your Patient Said His Pain Was ‘Not That Bad.’ You May Be Liable if He Was Just Being Stoic

Some patients are more forthcoming than others when it comes to acknowledging pain, or how long a given symptom has been present. You should know, though, that there’s precedent for an urgent care provider being held liable for taking that at face value in a malpractice case. Just this week an urgent care center in Idaho was hit with a multimillion dollar judgment after being sued by a patient who had injured his back while …

Update: WHO Gives Coronavirus an Official Moniker—and You’ll Want to Use It if Needed

With the current coronavirus outbreak continuing internationally—including more than 42,700 cases and over a thousand deaths in China, as well as 13 confirmed cases in the U.S. to date, the World Health Organization was moved to create an all-new name to aid in tracking and to properly reflect the nature of the pathogen. What has been known up to now as 2019-nCoV will be called COVID-19 from this point forward. This will be important for …

Primary Care Visits Are Tumbling: Is This a Problem or an Opportunity for You?

By this point, it isn’t news that preferences among patients are changing—away from traditional primary care, toward walk-in care with providers they might not necessarily ever see again. It’s plain that the doctor–patient relationship ain’t what it used to be. The change could be just as good for savvy urgent care operators at is bad for old-fashioned family practices, however. This is borne out by research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine this month. …

The Trend Toward Hiring NPs May Have Unintended Consequences

Nurse practitioners are gaining in both responsibility and numbers in the urgent care industry (as are physician assistants). The appeal is that it costs less to employ the average NP than it does the average physician, with no loss in prescribing authority. Employing advanced practice providers (APPs) in general allows an urgent care operator to handle more patients efficiently without adding dramatically to payroll. According to research published recently in the journal Health Affairs, the …

As Flu Shuts Down an Entire School, Health Officials Recommend Urgent Care Over the ED

Influenza infections are so rampant in Rexford, NY that an entire elementary school was forced to shut its doors for a day. Student absences were up to 20%, with faculty also calling in sick at such a rate that the school district was hard pressed to find coverage for the students who were in class. Considering that every day sick children and adults walked through the door increased the risk of spreading infection further, the …

Overprescribing Antibiotics Is a Concern Well Beyond ENT-Type Complaints

Urgent care and emergency room physicians have been taken to task for writing too many prescriptions for patients who present with sore throat, earache, and other typical upper respiratory complaints. A new study out of Case Western Reserve University and published in the Journal of the American Dental Association points out that they need to be more vigilant when it comes to prescribing for patients who present with dental pain and swelling, however. One of …

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