Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

UCA Renews Campaign to Boost Antibiotics Best Practices

The Urgent Care Association, long a proponent of sound antibiotic stewardship as a safeguard against drug-resistant bacteria, is working with the George Washington University Antibiotic Resistance Center on an initiative to improve antibiotic prescribing practices. One key element, through the College of Urgent Care Medicine, is an antibiotic stewardship toolkit based on the Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. UCA also just took part in—and sponsored—a …

Medicare Fee Schedule Proposes Urgent Care Specialty Measure Set

Among the proposed changes in the newly released 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) is a new urgent care specialty measure set. The Urgent Care Association and the College of Urgent Care Medicine had asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to include 12 specific measures, 11 of which were included in CMS’s proposal. The creation of a proper set is expected to help urgent care providers select measures when fulfilling the quality component …

MedExpress Plans to Go Big in Texas

MedExpress, which falls under the umbrella of UnitedHealthGroup’s Optum healthcare business, is planning to launch 12 new urgent care centers in Texas in the near future, with the first three expected to open between now and October. As recently as December 2017, it had just two in the entire state. The move is part of an expansive plan to increase UnitedHealthGroup’s healthcare holdings across the country. The company’s management has acknowledged a long-term goal for …

Walgreens’ ‘Digital Marketplace’ Connects Patients and Providers—Including Urgent Care

Walgreens has launched a new “digital marketplace” designed to guide patients to the best care setting (out of the 17 partners they’re working with, at least) for whatever their symptoms might be. The idea is to simplify the process of deciding whether an urgent care center, hospital emergency room, specialty provider—or a Walgreens health provider, of course—will be best suited to offer the patient the right level of care. Physician house calls are also possible …

Data Paint an Ugly Picture of the Consequences of Provider Burnout

Physician burnout is at least as dangerous as unsafe workplace conditions when it comes to medical errors, according to a new study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. In fact, it indicates that physicians with burnout are more than twice as likely to self-report a medical error compared with those without burnout. The potential consequences of that are dramatic; existing data show that med errors are a factor in as many as 200,000 deaths annually in …

Beware: As Avocado Consumption Rises, So Does Incidence of ‘Avocado Hand’

A few years ago, it seemed like every urgent care clinician had a story about a nail gun injury. This year’s unexpected menace, however, is the humble avocado. Avocado consumption in the United States has risen 250% since 2002—which is great news for growers, but apparently a danger to unsuspecting aficionados. The problem isn’t disease or contamination, according to a Northwestern University emergency room physician quoted in a recent Advisory Board Daily Briefing. It’s operator …

New Research Sees Urgent Care Market Hitting $26 Billion by 2024

Projections on the ongoing—and increasing—growth of the urgent care market continue to build, with the latest data predicting it to exceed $26 billion by 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% in that 6-year period. Market Research Engine’s latest report, Urgent Care Center Market By Ownership (Corporate Owned, Physician Owned, Hospital Owned); By Services (Illness, Injury, Physical, Vaccination, Diagnostic, Screening) and by Regional Analysis—Global Forecast by 2017–2024, breaks down the industry by …

Suddenly, Massachusetts is a Battleground State for Urgent Care Legislative Issues

The Urgent Care Association (UCA) and the North East Regional Urgent Care Association (NERUCA) have stepped up their joint efforts to lobby against proposed legislation in Massachusetts that it says would wreak havoc not only on urgent care operators, but the entire state healthcare system. No longer content to simply urge interested parties to contact their legislators to make their feelings about the legislation known, both groups have gone a step further by staging a …

ACEP and Georgia Physicians File Suit Over Anthem ED Policy

Anthem’s policy of refusing to pay on nonemergent visits to the emergency room (after the fact, at their discretion) has moved the Medical Association of Georgia and the American College of Emergency Physicians to file a lawsuit in U.S. district court. The two groups hope to get the court to compel Anthem and subsidiary Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia to abandon the policy, which is intended to discourage patients from going to the emergency …

New Data Breach Exposed Information on 200,000+ Urgent Care Patients

It’s unclear whether human error or ill intent on the part of hackers is to blame, but on July 10 the records of more than 200,000 patients who had visited Premier Immediate Medical Care was exposed was “left exposed” for over a month on a practice management software server. The software provider, MedEvolve, says it is notifying current and former Premier patients that their names, billing addresses, telephone numbers, insurance status, and, for some, Social …

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