Pediatric Urgent Care

What on the surface could appear to be good news may actually be obscuring a clearer picture of how the pandemic is affecting children in an unexpected way. Reports of suspected child abuse have dropped—dramatically—over the past year or so, according to an article from the Associated Press. At the same time, however, the AP’s review of records in Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas indicate that child deaths due to suspected maltreatment …

Now more than ever, parents are mindful of where they bring their children for medical care—especially for immediate concerns like minor injuries and run-of-the-mill illness. The last thing they’ll want to do is sit for hours in the emergency room among patients who might be presenting with symptoms of COVID-19. If your urgent care center has a reputation for being child-friendly, it’s likely they’ll come your way. If not…well, they just might end up at …

Concern over exposing children who either have chronic conditions or are waiting for a well-visit to COVID-19 is prompting more pediatricians than usual to refer sick patients to urgent care, according to an article just published by Kaiser Health News. While the parents quoted in the article were angered by such experiences, this phenomenon is both an affirmation of and an opportunity for child-friendly urgent care centers. Clearly, it reflects a high level of trust …

Parents are wary of bringing their children to the emergency room, the urgent care center, or even their own pediatrician’s office these days. That doesn’t mean children have stopped getting sick, of course. The go-to recommendations for children with pain or fever have been ibuprofen or acetaminophen, but does it really make a difference which one you recommend? A new study just published by JAMA Network suggests it might, actually. A meta-analysis of 19 studies …

As the mainstream media remind us several times a day, the United States continues to break records for daily confirmed cases of COVID-19. What is lost in the big picture, however, is the changing breakdown of who is being infected. Early in the pandemic, there was a perception that children were somehow less susceptible to the virus. However, according to new data from the American Academy of Pediatrics, children now make up 11.3% of all …

Just recently, we told you about Intermountain Healthcare’s efforts to improve its providers’ antibiotic prescribing habits through educational initiatives—and its success in establishing better antibiotic stewardship. Now a study published in the journal Pediatrics reveals similar progress with pediatricians affiliated with NorthShore University HealthSystem and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ practice based-research network. The program that formed the basis of the study involved 19 pediatric practices and reflected 72,723 visits between November 2015 and June …

Your clinical team has had to adapt to a whole new way of administering care since the COVID-19 pandemic landed in the U.S.—and not just for patients with the virus. The highly infectious nature of the disease not only scared some patients into delaying care, but also forced urgent care operators (and all healtchcare professionals) to adapt the way they operate on a daily basis. It’s largely been a process of trial and error. Guidance …