Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Affordable Care Act Giveth to—and Taketh Away from—Urgent Care Centers

William Rodney, MD couldn’t jump fast enough when he found out the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) would be raising Medicaid primary care payments to Medicare levels. His urgent care practice (featured here previously; see One Year In, Latino-focused Clinic Doubles in Size) took in enough additional fees to create an outreach clinic for bilingual uninsured patients and to provide x-rays, ultrasound, and other services for underserved communities in Tennessee. Now he’s worried about …

Due Diligence is Critical When It Comes to Credentialing

Credentialing is a process used to evaluate the qualifications and practice history of a doctor, including a review of completed education, training, residency, and licenses. It also includes any certifications issued by a board in the doctor’s area of specialty. Many urgent care centers assume their providers are fully credentialed; however, it is advisable to do your due diligence when engaging a new physician to ensure he or she has the necessary credentials. Even if …

Care Coordination Helps Patients, But How Does Urgent Care Fit In?

A new study by Neilsen Strategic Health Perspectives and the Council of Accountable Physician Practices affirms that outcomes are better when multiple providers who’ve treated the same patient share information. However, it also points out that communication between providers suffers when an urgent care center is outside of a health system. This represents a lost opportunity, as just 38% of physician offices provide access to an urgent cate center through the same medical group. Interestingly, …

Too Many Kids Head to Primary Care, Not Urgent Care, with Suspected Concussions

New data published in JAMA Pediatrics indicate that far too many children suspected of having a concussion are evaluated first in a primary care office. Between 2010 and 2014, 81.9% of young patients ultimately seen at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) had their first concussion-related healthcare visit in the primary care setting. Urgent care was a nonfactor, as the remainder sought care first in the emergency room (not surprising, given that the data set was …

Urgent Care Operators Look to Telehealth to See More Patients

Six months after it started offering video visits through Doctor on Demand and American Well, UnitedHealthcare says it expects to “see” 20 million patients that way by the end of 2016. More than half of the visits, to date, have been for respiratory issues. Statistically, the average user is a 31-year-old female. UnitedHealthcare says the vast majority of employers it covers like the idea, but have concerns about how many of their workers will actually …

Update: CDC Issues Another New Guidance for Zika Virus Testing

With the number of domestic cases of Zika infection still growing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a new interim guidance for diagnosing the virus. The latest issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report notes that “on the basis of newly available data, CDC recommends that Zika virus rRT-PCR be performed on urine collected <14 days after onset of symptoms in patients with suspected Zika virus disease.” The new directive should help …

How Urgent Care Can Help Fight Opioid Addiction

Nearly 2 million Americans have an opioid use disorder. While there are many causative factors behind that staggering number, Steven J. Stack, MD, president of the American Medical Association, says “the opioid epidemic…far too often has started from a prescription pad.” In an open letter to all physicians in every setting across the country, Stack proposed seven steps physicians can take to help reverse the tide: “Avoid initiating opioids for new patients with chronic noncancer …

CDC: Keep It Clean in the Clinic!

Overlook the simple things, and all the technology and medication in the world won’t keep patients—or healthcare providers—healthy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just launched a campaign called Clean Hands Count, aimed at preventing healthcare-associated infections through basic hygiene practices in all healthcare settings, including urgent care. One common misconception the program aims to correct: that antibiotic hand sanitizers are the safest. Rather, use of antibiotic-based cleansers increases the risk of antibiotic resistance; …

FDA Advises to Stop Administering Sterile Products from Medaus

The Food and Drug Administration is asking healthcare professionals to stop administering drug products intended to be sterile that were made by Medaus Inc. due to a lack of sterility assurance. Providers in all settings, including urgent care, are urged to check their supplies and quarantine any “sterile” products from Medaus. Some of the drugs (eg, injectable nutritional products) are more likely to be found in urgent care centers than others, such as injectable hormone …

FDA Panel Calls for Mandatory Opioid Training

Physicians who prescribe opioid pain medications would have to undergo a higher level of specific training under a guidance recommended by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel. In response to a perceived epidemic of opioid addiction and related deaths, the panel voted unanimously to advice requiring more education about the drugs’ risks. The panel’s vote was unanimous, but not binding—though the FDA does often follow recommendations made by its outside expert panels.

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