Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

FDA’s Gottlieb Wants More Rigorous Standards for Prescribing Opiates

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD says his agency needs to do more to help stem the opioid-addiction epidemic in the United Sates. For starters, he wants the FDA to impose stricter guidelines for prescribing immediate-release opioid drugs. The first step will be for the agency to expand training for physicians, nurses, and other providers who administer immediate-release opioids. While there is already training available, the FDA says it will now broaden information …

Get Creative in Promoting Your Urgent Care with Seasonal, Targeted Freebies

Think about the last promotional pen you used, or the sticky-pad you wrote on with it. It’s likely you don’t remember where you picked up either of them (even if it was the same place). Now, imagine that you used a tick remover that was given to you to remove a blood-sucking parasite from your child’s arm. You probably know where that one came from. PhysicianOne Urgent Care hit on that very idea when it …

Trustees Extend Medicare ‘Doomsday Scenario’ by a Year

Trustees for the actual Medicare trust fund say it will be insolvent by 2029, a year later than predicted by the Obama administration last year. The year before that, the Congressional Budget Office foresaw the program running dry in 2026. This means the infamous Independent Payment Advisory Board—devised by the designers of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) to put the brakes on Medicare spending if costs grew faster than a predetermined rate—will not …

Feds Charge Hundreds—Including Doctors and Nurses—with $1.3 Billion in Healthcare Fraud

The U.S. departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice (DOJ) have announced charges against 412 defendants in the largest healthcare fraud action yet by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Among those charged are 115 doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals. More than 120 of the defendants are charged with taking part in prescribing and distributing opioids, as well as other narcotics. All told, the alleged fraud schemes amount to $1.3 billion in …

Drug-Resistance Growing in STDs

Rising rates of antibiotic resistance in general have been discussed extensively. What has not been addressed as specifically is the growing number of cases of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases. Data that show condom use is declining makes this trend even more alarming, the World Health Organization warns. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes the STD, in particular, has become prone to developing resistance to the drugs used to treat it, according to …

Seasonal Workers Need Urgent Care, Too

The dog days of summer are all the more brutal for the seasonal workers lugging tourists’ bags, sitting in the sun at the top of the water slide, and keeping the greens green on the golf course. Many of them may even be away from home and staying in employee housing. Where will they turn when they need immediate care? Your urgent care center would be a great place to start—provided you’ve laid the groundwork …

Data Confirm that Urgent Care Can Keep Cancer Patients Out of the ED

The University of Colorado Cancer Center in Aurora, CO has quantified just how much urgent care can contribute to the overall health of patients with cancer—and it’s considerable. The Clinical Assessment and Rapid Evaluation (CARE) Clinic within the cancer center helped keep 21% of cancer patients out of the emergency room, generating over $176,000 in revenue over a period of 7 months. There’s no telling how many potentially serious complications were prevented by saving immunocompromised …

In the ED with a Nonemergency? Pay to Stay, or Walk Away

We all know emergency room waiting areas are choked with patients who could be treated just as well—and in less time for less money—in an urgent care center. That makes it all the more difficult for patients who really need to be there to be seen in a reasonable amount of time. Now Thomas Health System in Charleston, WV, thinks it has found a way to make people think twice about heading to the ED …

Longer Shifts = More Stress, Fatigue, and Less Satisfaction for Nurses

Four additional hours in a shift makes a big difference to busy nurses, according to new data published in the Journal of Nursing Education and Practice. Nurses working 12-hour shifts are more likely than those who put in 8 hours to experience anxiety, musculoskeletal disorders, disturbed sleep, and stress. The metaanalysis focused on 12 studies. The authors concluded that it was not so much the mere act of working for 12 hours, but the prolonged …