Practice Management
Outpatient visits for flu like illness are on a steady decline in the United States, indicating reduced activity of respiratory viruses including flu, COVID, and respiratory syncytial virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports the first week of April showed that visits for respiratory illness with fever plus a cough or sore throat fell to 2.8%, just below the national baseline of 2.9%. Positive labs for flu were down 7.7% since the …
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Omicron versus Flu & RSV – Which is Most Dangerous for Children? Take Home Point: In this study, hospitalization rates were highest for patients with RSV than Omicron (COVID-19) in all age groups of children. Citation: Hedberg P, Abdel-Halem L, Valik J, et. al. Outcomes of Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Infection vs Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections. JAMA Pediatr. 2023 Dec 26: e235734. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.5734 Relevance: With increasing availability for respiratory pathogen testing, it is …
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Flu season continues, and providers in several US markets are seeing surges in respiratory-virus-related visits. Meanwhile, new data also shows a year-over-year increase in antiviral prescriptions to treat influenza, according to a news report in Fierce Healthcare, leveraging data from Evernorth Research Institute (a Cigna subsidiary). Analyzing pharmacy claims for 32 million people, researchers noted an uptick in antiviral prescriptions in the weeks following Thanksgiving 2023 when compared to a similar time period during past …
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Urgent care centers and emergency departments (EDs) in Cook Children’s Medical Centers in Fort Worth and Prosper, Texas, are grappling with a sudden surge in RSV, influenza, and COVID-19. According to the medical center’s website, the hospitals are overwhelmed, struggling to accommodate infants with severe RSV cases. Last week, of the more than 800 RSV tests conducted, 29% were positive, while COVID-19 positivity stood at 4%. The medical center’s urgent care centers see about 800 …
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How Long Should We Prescribe Antibiotics for Pediatric UTI? Take-Home Point: Children receiving 5 days of antibiotics for urinary tract infection (UTI) had a higher rate of treatment failure that children receiving 10-day courses. However, absolute treatment failure rates were low in both groups. Citation: Zaoutis T, Shaikh N, Fisher B, et. al. Short-Course Therapy for Urinary Tract Infections in Children: The SCOUT Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2023 Jun 26; e231979. Relevance: There have …
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The 2017–2018 influenza season doesn’t just seem long, thanks to the high volume of cases—and deaths—this year; it’s actually going to last longer than usual, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, the CDC says flu season hasn’t even peaked yet; flu activity continues to be widespread in every state except Hawaii and has remained unchanged for 3 weeks—and indicator that the natural wane is still ahead of us. Nearly 12,000 …
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Influenza tends to get all the headlines at this time of year, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only seasonal complaint patients are likely to present with at urgent care centers. Frigid temperatures and icy roadways and sidewalks are sending many patients to healthcare providers in multiple settings. Local newspapers in the Davenport, IA area recently noted that nearly 300 people were treated for falls and other weather-related hazards over the space of a couple …
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The Urgent Care Association has launched a public-facing campaign to get consumers to head to their local urgent care center to ward off influenza, now that the season has officially begun. In addition to stressing that the urgent care center is “the best place to receive flu vaccinations and other key winter healthcare services,” UCA’s message also focuses on herd immunity—the notion that higher immunization rates will result in lower incidence of illness across the …
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Just the other day we shared data indicating that healthcare professionals are far less inclined to get a flu shot if their workplace doesn’t require it or offer the immunizations on site. Now comes word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the whole country’s influenza vaccination rate has plateaued—leaving us all at higher risk for an outbreak. New figures from the CDC reveal that since the 2013-2014 season, the rate for adults …
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Children whose parents ensure they get flu shots stand a significantly lower risk for death from influenza than children who are not vaccinated, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, the CDC says between 2010 and 2014 flu vaccinations reduced the risk of flu-associated death by half among children with underlying high-risk medical conditions, and by nearly two-thirds among healthy children. The study, published in Pediatrics, is thought …
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