Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

The Role of Urgent Care Centers in Regional Acute Coronary Syndrome Care

Urgent message: Patients with chest pain/acute coronary syndrome often present in outpatient medical settings—including urgent care centers—not designed to treat life-threatening conditions. Exclusive new data suggest that urgent care centers need to be integrated into pre-hospital cardiovascular care pathways. JASON T. WEINGART, MD, THOMAS P. CARRIGAN, MD, MHSA, LEE RESNICK, MD, DANIEL ELLENBERGER, BS, DANIEL I. SIMON, MD, and RICHARD A. JOSEPHSON, MS, MD Emergency medical services and hospital-based emergency departments (EDs) are typically incorporated …

Sudden Cardiac Death

Identifying Risk Factors in Preparticipation Physicals for Young Athletes Urgent message: Doctors in the US and Europe are divided over what the cardiovascular component of a proper sports physical should include. Here is a reasonable approach. NATHAN P. NEWMAN, MD, FAAFP Sudden death in young athletes is not new. In 490 BC, when the Greeks improbably defeated the invading Persians at Marathon, a young herald, Phidippides, ran 25 miles back to Athens to announce the …

Assessing for Life-threatening Chest Pain in the Urgent Care Center

Urgent message: Data show that urgent care centers are becoming a more common destination for patients experiencing chest pain. Immediate recognition of emergent vs. urgent causes may be the make-or-break moment for the patient’s outcome. Jasmeet Singh Bhogal, MD Introduction Evaluation of chest pain always presents as a diagnostic challenge, be it in the outpatient family medicine setting or the hospital emergency department. In fact, urgent care centers occupy a unique position in the equation; …

Evaluation and Management of Lower Extremity Edema

Urgent message: The high specificity but broad range of possible causes associated with a primary complaint of lower extremity edema poses a particular challenge to the urgent care clinician. Proper assessment of the differential diagnoses is the first step toward optimal outcomes, whether they be facilitated by treatment or referral. Michael S. Miller, DO Patients presenting to urgent care with a primary complaint of edema of the lower extremities of any duration can pose a …