Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

As COVID-19 Limitations Relax, Urgent Care Looks at Returning to Pre-Pandemic Norms

Mask mandates, capacity limits, and social distancing suggestions are starting to fall by the wayside across the country, leading urgent care operators to reconsider operational changes they may have instituted at the height of the pandemic. As JUCM News readers know, many urgent care centers diverted patients to alternate locations so resources could be dedicated to COVID-19 testing or other related activities. Now, however, Western Sierra Medical Clinic in California, Fayetville Urgent Care in Arkansas, …

More Timely Care: Effect of Online Queuing vs Change in Hours of Operation on Hourly Arrival Volumes. A Practice Management Reflection

Urgent message: Hours of operation changes may have more effect on leveling patient arrival volumes in a pediatric urgent care compared with an online queueing system alone. Aimy Patel, MD; Jennifer Johnson, MD; Brian R. Lee, PhD, MPH; Amanda Montalbano, MD, MPH Citation: Patel A, Johnson J, Lee BR, Montalbano A. More timely care: effect of online queuing vs change in hours of operation on hourly arrival volumes. a practice management reflection. J Urgent Care …

Febrile Seizure: An Urgent Care Overview

Urgent message: While alarming to parents, febrile seizures in children typically are benign and self-limited. However, the possibility of a life-threatening etiology mandates that the urgent care provider determine the type of seizure and employ appropriate assessments based on factors specific to each case. Tiffany Addington, MD CASE A previously healthy 3-year-old boy presented to urgent care after having a seizure at home. He had a fever that morning and was given ibuprofen. His mother …

Mask Mandates Are Going Away—but Don’t Sound the All-Clear Just Yet

Amid the good news that the COVID-19 vaccines currently being administered in the U.S. cover known variants and that social distancing and mask mandates are being phased out, there’s potentially grim news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the problem is so rare that it’s unlikely to dissuade health officials and legislators, there were at least 10,262 confirmed breakthrough cases of COVID-19 between January 1 and April 30 of this year according …

Urgent Care ‘Physician Assistants’ Today, ‘Physician Associates’ Tomorrow?

In the eyes of many, physician assistants and nurse practitioners (known collectively as advanced practice providers, or APPs) have become indispensable members of the urgent care clinical team. Given that they work under a lower pay scale than physicians, it’s possible for an urgent care operator to hire more APPs than physicians, thereby increasing the productivity of the practice without a corresponding jump in payroll—and reserving more of the physician’s time for the highest-acuity patients. …

The CDC Has Seen the Light and Is Counting on Urgent Care to Boost COVID-19 Immunization

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is asking its jurisdictions to work with urgent care operators and hospital emergency rooms to allocate and administer COVID-19 vaccine in an effort to equalize disparities in adult immunization. In its monthly letter to the 64 jurisdictions, which are dispersed throughout the U.S. and its territories, the agency noted that “with 50% of the U.S. population visiting either an emergency department of urgent care facility annually, these access …

There Are a Lot of Misperceptions About HIPAA and COVID-19 Vaccination Status. This May Help

As states allow public venues and private businesses to relax standards regarding attendance and social distancing, the question of who is vaccinated and who is not is becoming more prevalent—and more contentious. Some athletic stadiums have established special sections where people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (and who can prove it with a vaccine “passport”) can sit closer together, forego masks, and even enjoy different concession-stand items than their unvaccinated peers. This has raised …

Tell Vaccine-Hesitant Patients: U.S.-Approved COVID-19 Shots Protect Against Variants

It’s been more than 5 months since the first COVID-19 vaccine received an Emergency Use Authorization. Early supply chain challenges have been worked out, for the most part, so most adults have ready access to the vaccine, which costs nothing to receive. And yet, as of May 20, less than half the U.S. population ages 18 years and older is fully vaccinated. As you undoubtedly know, many of those who have declined so far either …

National Vaccination Rates Can Be Misleading—Especially for Those Traveling Across the U.S.

As JUCM News readers know, national COVID-19 vaccination rates are hovering just below 50%—progress, to be sure, but a figure indicating that we have a long way to go. It’s essential to bear in mind, however, as we head toward summer vacation season, that a national “average” encompasses states with the highest vaccination rates and those where too many people remain unvaccinated. The Associated Press just published an article noting that the percentage of vaccinated …

With Kids Returning to School, It’s Time to Revisit Urgent Care’s Role in Providing On-Site Care

School nurses have their hands full on a good day, but the COVID-19 pandemic has added layers of responsibility for temperature taking, educating the educators on protocols for the virus, figuring out which children could have been exposed to which family whose father was just diagnosed with the virus…. Even with many states announcing plans to return to “normal” in the fall, it’s likely that precautions (and certainly concerns) will continue for the foreseeable future. …