Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Patients, Clinicians Have Similar Accuracy With Interpreting At-Home COVID Tests

When patients use at-home tests to check for COVID-19, their results are similar to results from clinicians using the same tests, according to a study in Microbiology Spectrum. Researchers compared the sensitivity and specificity of Abbott’s BinaxNOW patient-administered rapid antigen test (RAT) against RATs administered by a healthcare provider and against reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Of the 953 patients, 34.1% had at least 1 COVID-19 symptom. Hospital staff administered a RAT and an RT-PCR …

Could the US Lose Its Measles Elimination Status?

Rising measles outbreaks in the United States have raised concerns about whether the country is losing its status of having “eliminated” the disease, according to the Hill. As of March 7, 2024, 45 measles cases were reported across 17 states. Florida has reported 10 cases in 2 counties, prompting the Florida Surgeon General to recommend unvaccinated children should stay home for 3 weeks, aligning with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, but it …

Smartwatches Show Promise in Detecting Arrhythmia in Kids

According to a retrospective study, smartwatches can detect arrhythmia events in children, including events that are not generally captured with ambulatory monitors. The study presented in Communications Medicine examined medical records for 145 patients under 18 years old and documented potential arrhythmias that were identified by an Apple Watch. Recordings were captured when the patients believed that their heart rhythm was abnormal. Scott Ceresnak, MD, director, of the Pediatric Electrophysiology Program, Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, …

CDC Relaxes COVID-19 Isolation Guidelines

Patients who test positive for COVID-19 or believe they are infected no longer need to stay home and isolate for 5 days, as per new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines adopted last week. The CDC reworked its prevailing guidance, saying that COVID-19 “is no longer the emergency that it once was,” and people who with COVID-19 can return to everyday activities if their symptoms are mild, have been improving, and it’s been …

Dynamics Between Pharmacists and AMA Heat Up

The American Medical Association (AMA) has been consistently outspoken against proposed legislation looking to authorize pharmacists to leverage test results to directly diagnose patients. AMA warns that such “scope creep” is detrimental to patient health because an isolated lab test depicts only a snapshot of overall health, which is not enough to determine treatment. AMA stresses that pharmacists are not trained to diagnose patients, and it has defeated pharmacist-prescribing proposals in Alabama and Louisiana. Pushing …

Video Consultation May Not Have Advantages For Pediatric Prescribing

Researchers found the use of video telemedicine to conduct consultations for acutely ill children in rural and community emergency departments (EDs) does not reduce medication errors when compared to consultations done by telephone, as presented in JAMA Network Open. A randomized trial across 15 community and rural EDs that examined 696 cases of acutely ill children found no statistically significant differences in physician-related medication errors between cases leveraging telephone consultations when compared to cases leveraging …

DOJ Questions UnitedHealth’s Contracting Practices

The Department of Justice has launched an antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Group, focusing on how the UnitedHealthcare insurance division influences its own Optum health-services arm, according to the Wall Street Journal. Optum’s portfolio includes physician groups and other providers, and the business line employs a total physician force of about 90,000, making it the largest physician employer in the country. The investigation is digging into how Optum’s acquisitions of physician groups impact competition, particularly in …

AI Tools Will Soon Be Part of Everyday Practice

A perspectives article in JAMA Internal Medicine notes that primary care providers (PCPs) spend a large part of their time each day clicking in their medical record systems. Artificial intelligence (AI) is gradually working its way into everyday processes—such as algorithms that can suggest coding choices or predict a patient’s risk for a certain health condition—ideally to help clinicians gain some efficiencies. The author believes that the widespread availability of generative AI suggests that AI-powered …

Walgreens Pulls Village Medical Out of Multiple Markets

After investing $5.2 billion in VillageMD in 2021, Walgreens initially had plans to open at least 600 Village Medical primary care clinics within Walgreens retail pharmacy locations in 30 markets by 2025, aiming to amass about 1,000 clinics by 2027. However, last week in what seems like a relative backpedal, Walgreens announced it is now closing all its VillageMD sites in Illinois and Florida, a Drug Store News story revealed. Illinois currently hosts 6 locations, and Florida …

UCA Highlights Bipartisan Effort to Encourage Use of UC

The Urgent Care Association (UCA) recently led a new effort that asks the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to include policies in the forthcoming FY 2025 Physician Fee Schedule that would encourage those covered by Medicare and Medicaid to seek non-emergent care at urgent care centers. A letter written by Ann Kuster (D-NH), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Darin LaHood (R-IL), and Michael Burgess (R- TX) that was signed by 26 members of Congress from both …