Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Medicaid ‘Experiment’ Fails to Reduce Use of ED

A new study of the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment shows the program has fallen short on one of the key benefits promised—namely, that emergency room traffic would be reduced if state Medicaid rolls were opened up to low-income adults through a lottery system. Nearly 90,000 residents signed up for the lottery, but EDs are as crowded as ever. It’s beyond question that urgent care could reduce the congestion, but most Medicaid programs don’t offer urgent …

Missouri Demands Medicaid Copay in the ED—But Not in Urgent Care

Medicaid patients in Missouri will have to fork over an $8 copay before receiving care in the emergency room, thanks to a new bill that aims to reduce overusage in the ED. The bill allows for free visits to urgent care centers, however. Senate Bill 608 also gives physician offices the right to assess Medicaid patients a $5 penalty if they make a habit of missing appointments without 24-hours’ notice; miss an appointment once and …

New Data: Nonemergent Patients Still Getting Admitted Through the ED

Patients who don’t need to be visiting the emergency room at all are too often not only evaluated, but admitted into the hospital through the ED. Some even wind up in critical care units, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. While some patients may be heading to the ED because they’re unsure of the most appropriate setting for their symptoms, others claim lack of access to primary care as the main …

Army Telemedicine Pilot Aims to Reduce Traffic in the ED

Telemedicine will be at the center of a pilot program the U.S. Army launched this month, aiming to keep nonemergent cases from clogging up the emergency room. Patients who need immediate—but not emergency—care will be redirected virtually from the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH) in Fort Campbell KY to an army medical center some 445 miles away. Once screened at BACH, patients will be either see an emergency physician or be directed to an onsite …

New Study: EDs Need to Step Up Their Game to Stem Overcrowding

There are new data supporting the belief that emergency rooms are not doing enough to stem overcrowding—a longstanding rationale for visiting an urgent care center for nonemergent complaints. A new study published in Health Affairs says that while more hospitals are adopting interventions to prevent overcrowding (eg, bedside registration, scheduling elective surgeries on weekends), far too many are not doing enough. Researchers from Albany Medical College, George Washington University, and Harvard Medical School report that …

Emergencies in the Office: Why Are 911 Calls Placed From Family Medicine and Urgent Care Offices?

Urgent message: New data indicate that calls to 911 from family medicine and urgent care offices and subsequent transport to ED occur for a wide range of reasons, with the distribution varying to a large degree based on the age of the patient and the practice setting. Introduction Life-threatening emergencies have been reported to occur in primary care medical offices.1,2 However, the type of medical emergencies that occur remains unclear. Previous studies that have attempted …