Print issues of JUCM, as well a coverage in JUCM News, have offered insights into the role urgent care can play in improving antibiotic stewardship across the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released data on the potential for devastating consquences: 23,000 Americans die annually from antibiotic-reisstant infections every year. Given the greater frequency with which patients seek an antibiotic prescription in urgent care centers, you are in an ideal position to help increase responsible use of antibiotics. As we’ve pointed out, though, standing firm when a patient demands an antibiotic even though they have a viral infection in these days of patient satisfaction metrics is no easy task. Doing the right thing for the right reasons can cost you a return visit (and maybe even social media trashtalk). HealthLeaders just posted an article online intended to help clinicians work toward more responsible use of antibiotics, breaking down an approach for urgent care providers in three broad steps:
- Self-monitor with your EMR. As Urgent Care Association CEO Laurel Stoimenoff, PT, CHC is quoted in the post as saying, EMRs are ideally suited to help you keep an eye on the antibiotic prescribing habits of individual providers, and to counsel accordingly if you see things going off course.
- Encourage correct coding. The most specific ICD-10 codes possible should be used at all times. This not only also helps reveal inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and ensures proper reimbursement, but brings with it the added value of tracking what presentations are most common in your location.
- Educate patients. You’ve had those conversations; patients insist they “know” what works for them, and more often than not if they’re coming in with any kind of head, nose, ear, or throat complaint they’re convinced that an antibiotic is the only thing that will do the trick. Given that they can’t get in to see their primary care provider for a few days, they’re coming to see you. Again, the urgent care provider is ideally situated to counsel patients so they truly understand you would be doing them a disservice (and putting their future health at risk) by writing a prescription for an antibiotic they don’t need. Start by explaining—cordially—the difference between bacterial and viral infections. In the HealthLeaders post, Stoimenoff relays that she heard one physician tell a patient, “If you were my mother, this is what I would do.”
You can read Improving Appropriate Antibiotic Use for Common Clinical Conditions in Urgent Care, one of the more recent JUCM article referenced above, in our archive.