Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Resolve to Practice Better Antibiotic Stewardship in the New Year

Print issues of JUCM, as well a coverage in JUCM News, have offered insights into the role urgent care can play in improving antibiotic stewardship across the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released data on the potential for devastating consquences: 23,000 Americans die annually from antibiotic-reisstant infections every year. Given the greater frequency with which patients seek an antibiotic prescription in urgent care centers, you are in an ideal position …

US News & World Report Analyzes the ‘Meteoric’ Growth of Urgent Care

Recognizing what you’ve known for years—that the appeal of urgent care to the U.S. patient population continues to grow, with no signs of diminishing—US News & World Report turned its attention to why that’s the case in a recent issue. Calling the rise of urgent care “meteoric,” the article calls out three primary factors—accessibility and convenience, cost savings, and array of services—as chiefly responsible for drawing more patients every year, with the number of facilities …

Success with VA May Inspire Others to Rely More on APPs in Urgent Care

It’s not news that there’s a shortage of primary care physicians that is expected to affect both primary care and urgent care practices more and more in the coming years. It’s also well established that advanced practice practitioners (APPs)—nurse practitioners and physician assistants—are being called on to shoulder more of the work load in medical practices of every stripe. A physician-penned opinion piece recently published by The Hill asserts that trend is a viable solution …

Could ‘Residential Medicine’ Follow Occupational Medicine’s Trajectory?

On-site urgent care services have been growing in popularity in workplaces for some time, to the extent that occupational medicine is a substantial revenue stream for many urgent care businesses. Now some operators are seeing a similar opportunity in senior living communities. As noted in a recent entry on the Senior Housing News website, Christian Living Communities (CDC), which operates or manages assisted-living, memory care, and life plan communities in Colorado, Utah, and Missouri, brought …

FastMed–NextCare Merger Would Bring 251 Locations Under One Umbrella

FastMed Urgent Care and NextCare Holdings, Inc. have announced plans to join forces in a merger that would create a company with 251 urgent care centers in 10 states. Under the terms of the agreement, Urgent Care Holdings of America, LLC, doing business as FastMed Urgent Care, would acquire 100% of NextCare Holdings, Inc. If it’s approved, closing is expected to come within the next 60 days. As a standalone company, FastMed owns and operates …

Disease-Carrying Asian Tick Species Makes Its Way to Eight U.S. States

The appearance of a tick native to eastern Asia and Korea in the U.S. has alarmed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enough that the agency issued a formal report on it this week. Several factors make the tick newsworthy: The fact that the Asian longhorned tick has been found in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, Arkansas and West Virginia indicates that global travel and climate change are likely to bring …

Watch for Red Flags That Your Top People Could Be Eying the Exit

There are usually signs when a valued employee is thinking of jumping ship—but that’s not much help if you don’t know to look for the signs. A new post on Advisory Board recommends running through a “red flag checklist” to see if you’re in danger of losing your MVP. Such a checklist would include looking for sudden changes in performance, attendance, the level of interest an employee has in their role, a change in the …

Don’t Forget the Human Touch (Literally)

Providers have very little time with patients (many of whom they’ve never met before, in the case of urgent care), so it can be easy to disregard the importance of the human touch in the service of “efficiency.” Doing so could be a mistake both clinically and in terms of patient satisfaction, however. A recent article in The New York Times recounts the experience of a woman who was comforted throughout a breast cancer scare …

More on Lies Common in the Healthcare Setting

Just weeks ago, we brought you an exclusive article on How to Deal with a Liar in your urgent care practice. Now comes a post on the website The Hill that looks at lying on a grander scale: The United States healthcare system, in which lies are often generated and promoted in pursuit of short-term financial gain, according to authors Lawton R. burns and Mark V. Pauly. In their opinion piece, the pair reflect on …

Think Twice Before Dismissing Even the Unlikeliest Complaints

The odds are that the most outrageous concerns patients present with can be easily explained away, and often to the patient’s satisfaction (and relief). That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look into them, though. Take the tale of a Gila Lyons, a writer who happens to have (and who has written extensively about) anxiety and panic disorders. For some time she experienced ringing in her ears, accompanied by a “prickly tickle” as she described it in …

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