Practice Management
While the country is locked in its annual battle against influenza, a second “bug” is creeping up and taking its toll on schools and workplaces, as well. Like the flu, norovirus picks up steam in the winter months and is especially hard—sometimes deadly—on seniors and young children. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts February will be the peak month for infection, which is characterized by intense gastrological symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, …
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Hospitalizations for influenza are up 66% over the same period last year in Oregon, according to the Oregon Health Authority. They’re not just coming in through the emergency room, either; one clinician says his hospital’s urgent care and family practices departments, in addition to the ED, are all packed with flu patients. The spike in cases has put pressure on all practice settings, prompting the Health Authority to step up its efforts to promote flu …
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With many states stuck in their peak flu seasons and death tolls rising—24 people have died from influenza in the state of Washington, alone—urgent care centers are being called upon to offer twofold support: First, to administer flu shots to patients who haven’t received them and provide supportive care for those who have influenza, and second, to care for patients fleeing emergency rooms that are overflowing with flu patients. Make sure area primary care office …
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Influenza sits alone as the only infectious disease among the top 10 causes of death in the United States, proving more work needs to be done to ensure everyone who needs a flu shot gets one. Urgent care is ideally suited to saving lives through prevention in this area, being an increasingly popular destination for people without a “medical home” and among newly insured patients. Influenza and pneumonia are listed as the seventh leading causes …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to stress that immunization—plus everyday hygiene—is the best way to avoid potentially deadly flu. Urgent care providers are in an especially good position to try to influence patients, as anyone feeling bad enough to seek immediate care may be susceptible to suggestions on how to avoid feeling even worse down the road. The CDC recommends six steps providers can take to encourage even reluctant patients to …
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With preparations already underway for the 2016–2017 flu season, this is an ideal time to look further into the correlation between pneumonia and influenza—especially in urgent care, where respiratory illness is the number-one diagnosis code recorded. Pneumonia is the most common complication of influenza, and leads to significant morbidity and mortality, with the elderly and patients with comorbid conditions being most at risk. Glenn Harnett, MD will lead a discussion of this deadly combination in …
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Eleven children have died from flu or flu-related illness this year, and roughly 20,000 are hospitalized every year in the U.S. thanks to influenza, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And yet the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, 2016 reveals that even 14% of parents who had their children immunized against flu this year believe it is “less important” than other childhood vaccines; perhaps less surprisingly, 59% of …
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If your urgent care center has not seen a boom in patients reporting with flu-like symptoms, don’t assume it’s going to be a slow influenza season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the annual peak is merely delayed, not lower than expected. In fact, most of the United States is still seeing a gradual climb in reported cases with this year’s peak not expected until at least January. New Jersey and South Carolina …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, is Practice Management Editor for JUCM, serves on the Board Directors of the Urgent Care Association of America, and is Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives for Experity. Urgent Message: Flu shots decrease health-care expenses, workplace absenteeism, and lost productivity, so why do most insurers not cover their cost when patients get the shots at urgent care centers? It is time for this practice to change. According to the U.S. Centers for …
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Urgent message: Between the current – and still growing – volume of H1N1 flu cases and fast-approaching influenza season, the urgent care physician will be challenged to distinguish among a variety of common cold and influenza-like conditions. Gary Klein, MD, MPH, MBA, CHS-V, FAADM Introduction The mainstream media have certainly accomplished the mission of alerting the public to the dangers of H1N1 flu – perhaps to the point that many are tempted to dismiss their …
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