Practice Management
Shakespeare may have opined that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” but a new report from JAMA Network Open reveals that the words you choose when speaking with patients matter a great deal—to the extent that they can actually affect healthcare quality and patients’ opinions of you as a provider. Researchers who looked at 600 patient encounters involving 138 physicians discovered six ways that physicians express “positive” feelings (eg, compliments, approval, …
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In spite of public health messaging (some of which highlights healthcare providers and patients of color), there continue to be disparities in vaccination rates from one demographic group to another across the United States. As noted in an article just published online by JAMA Health Forum, U.S. neighborhoods with a higher percentage of white and Asian residents and higher mean incomes were more likely to have high rates of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 compared with neighborhoods …
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Back in March, Antiviral Research published an article declaring that ivermectin—known as a treatment for various parasitic conditions in humans and animals—was found to inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Some patients, presumably spurred on by exaggerated, out-of-context, or downright erroneous reports on the internet, took that as encouragement to seek out prescriptions for ivermectin and to self-treat for COVID-19. Now they are suffering the consequences, which include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, as well as …
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Whether it’s fear of getting infected or just a refusal to wait for hours while patients who are concerned they could have COVID-19 take precedence, too many people with chronic illness are shying away from the emergency room when they are having an acute experience these days. An article published recently in Medscape Medical News detailed the story of several patients who fear that their local hospital just won’t have room for them when they …
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Recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that people who are not vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus are five times more likely to get COVID-19 and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized if they do get infected. At the same time, according to a new report published in Lancet Infectious Disease, people who get COVID-19 in spite of being vaccinated are 50% less likely to experience “long” COVID-19. The research, …
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We tend to be dismissive of patients who express concern about the safety of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines—all of which have been shown to reduce transmission and severity of the virus, with low incidence of any side effects. While the motives of some of those individuals may be suspect, there are some who are genuinely fearful that their perceived consequences of getting the vaccine are more compelling than the proven benefit. Those who have …
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Urgent message: Syncope in pediatric patients may be attributed to a wide variety of sources. As such, it is essential to keep a broad differential and to eliminate potentially life-threatening etiologies. Nehal Bhandari, MD, FAAP and Abbas Zaidi, MD, FAAP CASE PRESENTATION A 12-year-old previously healthy female presents to urgent care with several episodes of “blacking out” over the past 4 days. Each episode has occurred when she stands up from a sitting or supine …
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Urgent message: Many pediatric urgent care centers lack 24/7 pediatric radiologist coverage and rely on the urgent care provider for initial interpretation and subsequent clinical management. If misdiagnosed, this could represent a potential patient safety concern. Allison Wood, DO; Anne McEvoy, MD; Paul Mullan, MD, MPH; Lauren Paluch, MPA, PA-C; Brynn Sheehan, PhD; Jiangtao Luo, PhD; Turaj Vazifedan, DHSc; Theresa Guins, MD; Jeffrey Bobrowitz, MD; and Joel Clingenpeel, MD Citation: Wood A, McEvoy A, Mullan …
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As many parts of the country approach caseloads and transmission rates similar to what they faced at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some urgent care centers are likewise returning to emergency procedures they established to help reduce risk for infection of patients and staff. Cook Children’s Hospital in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, for one, is closing many of its centers earlier than usual, funneling late-night patients to a single location. They’re also keeping patients …
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Most public health efforts to contain spread of COVID-19 have been just that—public. It’s not without good reason, given how easily the virus can pass from one person to another and the great number of people most of us are exposed to every day. However, new data just published by JAMA Network Open should serve as a reminder that what we’re exposed to when we’re out of the house becomes what we expose our family …
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