Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Mitigating Suicide Risk in Young Patients: Urgent Care’s Role in Identifying Patients At-Risk And Saving Lives

Jeanne Marconi, MD Over the past 20 years, and more recently throughout the pandemic, suicide rates in the United States have generally been increasing; this has been especially true among adolescents and young adults.1 Despite improvements in recognition and appreciation of the impact of mental health issues, suicide rates continue to climb in America. Healthcare centers, whether inpatient or outpatient, have the unique opportunity to identify patients at-risk for self-harm and to intervene. These opportunities …

Why Specialty Recognition Matters More Than Ever for Urgent Care

Commuting in Jakarta can be a nightmare. The average citizen in Indonesia’s capital city spends weeks stuck in urban transit each year. Compare this with Singapore, which is consistently rated one of the best cities in the world for commuters. The difference between the day-to-day experience of residents of each city is stark. The root cause of why these two metropolises of southeast Asia have such disparate commuter experiences lies in the contrast of how …

Updates on Sports Related Concussion from the 6th International Conference on Concussion in Sport

Over the last 20 years, the Concussion in Sport Group has met periodically to develop statements guiding the assessment and management of sports related concussions. The most recent meeting of the group took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in October 2022 and produced updated and freely available, evidence-informed tools to assist in the detection and assessment of sports related concussion (SRC). These tools include: the Concussion Recognition Tool-6 (CRT6); Sport Concussion Assessment Tool-6 (SCAT6); Child SCAT6; …

Master the Distinction Between Level 3 and Level 4 Visits with These Best Practices

A recurring issue for healthcare practitioners is the frequency with which they find themselves contemplating whether a patient encounter should be classified as a level 3 or level 4 office visit. With a staggering 79% of ambulatory patient visits falling within these categories, this query has become exceedingly common among providers. Complicating matters further, the coding guidelines from the American Medical Association (AMA) contain gray areas that can contribute to additional confusion.[1] This article aims …

Leadership Must Guide Behavior Change for the Next Phase in Urgent Care

Ben Barlow, MD, is Chief Medical Officer of Experity As I’ve discussed before, urgent care medicine is ready for its next phase, and exceptional leadership is needed to make urgent care a shining light within a struggling house of medicine. Engaging your team and setting one priority goal is the best approach for solidifying a behavior change that leads to exceptional results. Picking one goal is the easy part. Getting all team members to engage …

Leaders Must Prioritize Goals for the Next Phase in Urgent Care

Urgent care medicine is still trying to find its place in the vast medical care landscape. At the same time, the whole “house of medicine” is going through yet another challenging time. Our journals and the media are reporting that medical providers are feeling demoralized and uncertain of the future. In some clinics, the medical staff shows up focused only on surviving the day. Considering these organizational issues, it can often feel overwhelming when leaders …

A Case-Based Exploration on How We Address High Blood Pressure Concerns in Urgent Care

Joanne P. Parker, MD Urgent message: High blood pressure is a common incidental finding in urgent care. Distinguishing patients who may need treatment from those who should be advised to follow up for further evaluation is well within the urgent care provider’s field of expertise. Click Here to download the article PDF  Patients often present to urgent care with concerns about their blood pressure readings. Additionally, high blood pressure (BP) is frequently a very incidental …

Dig a little deeper

Tracey Quail Davidoff, MD, FCUCM I was scanning the tracking board during an urgent care shift the other day and, as usual, my brain was five steps ahead. I read the chief complaints and had already determined the questions I’d ask to guide the history based on the differential diagnoses I’d predicted. This is a regular occurrence in the UC and ED, whether we admit it or not. It’s part of how we move things …

Boost Charting Efficiency: A Sure-Fire Path to Better Job Satisfaction

David Gahtan MS, PA-C and Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FCUCM, FACEP Whether we like it or not, electronic medical records are here to stay. And their takeover has been swift. Over recent decades, the EMR has gone from an obscure, bare-bones, often clunky digital notepad to a ubiquitous and powerful tool which tracks enormous amounts of patient data. To continue to practice medicine, we’ve had no choice but to go along for the ride. It’s …

There’s Something Rotten in Urgent Care Reimbursements

Eric Ellis, MD Something is amiss in how smaller urgent care operators are reimbursed these days. This, likely, is not news to you and I’m sure my situation is not unique, but in the process of having opened a group of urgent care centers around Sacramento, CA over the past few years, I’ve been shocked about just how bad things are. When we opened our first center, I used a management company to help with …

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