Practice Management
Urgent care centers deliver a higher level of service than emergency rooms, though some patients perceive that the ED offers a higher level of care, according to a report from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The data reflect analysis of five-star and one-star Yelp reviews (the highest and lowest scores, respectively) for urgent care centers and EDs. Patients giving five stars after a visit to the ED valued …
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Ochsner Health System is taking its commitment to providing telehealth in an urgent care environment one step further by launching Ochsner Anywhere Care, a 24-hour, direct-to-consumer telehealth service it will operate in partnership with American Well. Patients will be able to “see” a provider at any time of day or night through an mHealth app on any enabled mobile device when urgent care needs arise. If follow-up care is needed, the online clinician will refer …
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Urgent care operators and occupational medicine providers alike should be aware that prescription opioids continue to be found to blame more often than other substances in overdose deaths in the United States. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s just-released 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment reveals that controlled prescription drugs are the second most commonly abused substance, making the number of deaths slightly out of proportion to the incidence of abuse. The DEA report shows fentanyl and other …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is devoting more resources to gathering and sharing intelligence about acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) as the number of cases continues to rise across the United States. Next up in the CDC’s information campaign will be a Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) call next Tuesday, November 13, 2 to 3 pm Eastern. AFM, whose symptoms have been likened to a number of other viruses, including polio, tends to …
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The retail clinic market might not be the only one affected by CVS Health’s union with Aetna. CVS CEO Larry Merlo has been talking about finding ways for his company to work more closely with physicians for the past year or so. With the Aetna all but in the bag, it may not be too long before that possibility manifests with a dive into the urgent care pool, if a new post on the HealthLeaders …
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Antibiotic stewardship has become something of a buzz phrase in many healthcare settings. Don’t forget what it really means or what’s at stake, though. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 30% of antibiotics in the United States are prescribed unnecessarily. And for every misguided script, the risk of antibiotic resistance increases. At least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics every …
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North Carolina’s Medicaid program has spent at least $75 million for patients to have nonemergency complaints addressed in the emergency room over the past couple of years. According to a new report released by the state, patients have to gone to the ED with primary complaints as mundane as bad breath, sunburn, bunions, and common warts. The report goes on to specify that those concerns—and many more—could be handled much less expensively and just as …
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As this year’s influenza season really gets going, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a report with some data that should make you sit up and take notice. In fact, it should spur you to action. In a year when flu killed at least 79,000, less than 40% of adults in the United States received the influenza vaccination. The highest death toll in decades coincided with the lowest immunization rate in 7 …
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Patients in 29 states have been diagnosed with Salmonella infection attributed to consuming tainted chicken products. Worse, public health officials say testing shows this particular strain to be resistant to multiple antibiotics often used to treat patients with severe Salmonella infections. No deaths have been reported, but scores of patients have been hospitalized. Ask patients who present with diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps what they’ve eaten in the past 12–72 hours, and consider giving a …
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Treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases may be the particular expertise of clinicians who staff sexual health clinics—but that doesn’t mean those responsibilities are their exclusive domain. Primary care and urgent care will need to step up their game if the current upswing in many STDs is to be turned around, as noted in a recent article from Kaiser Health News. Screening and treatment are both well within the expertise of urgent care providers. …
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