Practice Management
During 2017–2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified a total of 50 large tuberculosis (TB) outbreaks in 23 states, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC defines a large outbreak as 10 or more related cases within a 3-year period and notes that the large outbreaks accounted for 1,092 of the 61,993 cases reported during the study period. Cases attributed to large outbreaks were somewhat different from TB cases …
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Acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) are common diagnoses among pediatric patients, and a recent study of 449,630 pediatric ARTI visits found antibiotics were prescribed less often during telemedicine visits than in-person visits, as published in JAMA Network Open. Antibiotic prescriptions were written during 46.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 45.1%-48.4%) of primary care in-person visits vs 34.6% (95% CI, 27.0%-42.3%) of primary care telemedicine visits with a difference of −12.1 (95% CI, −19.3 to −5.0) percentage …
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Urgent care is evolving into an essential entry point for the healthcare system, driven by primary care shortages as well as shifting patient expectations, according to Andrea Giamalva, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Experity, in an interview with Medical Economics. She says urgent care is increasingly becoming the front door for many patients because so many Americans don’t have primary care relationships, especially younger generations. That means urgent care must be able to triage appropriately …
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May is Urgent Care Awareness Month, and the Urgent Care Association (UCA) is offering a 2026 resource kit with free downloads, including sample social media posts with hashtags, text, and images that are sized appropriately and ready to post. The messaging includes thoughtful truisms about urgent care’s positive impact for patients, such as “Urgent Care is more than a convenience, it’s everyday healthcare,” and “Because healthcare should work around your life—not the other way around.” …
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Big retailers are still attempting to shape new clinical lines of business, betting that some of them will eventually become profitable. Attention has now turned to GLP-1s. Yet against this backdrop, healthcare’s market reality is still leading to scaled-back expansion plans, noticeable exits, and massive financial write-downs for some retailers. The market is rather hit-or-miss right now. For example, Amazon continues to open primary care clinics through health system partnerships (including about 200 sites, according …
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The gas-station convenience store operator QuikTrip Corp. has sold off its 9 MedWise urgent care centers, according to Convenience Store News, effectively exiting the healthcare market. The Saint Francis Health System in Oklahoma has acquired the MedWise centers and will operate them within the health system’s network starting in June, retaining the current staff. While the centers earned Urgent Care Association (UCA) accreditation, growth stalled due to the lack of a hospital network and little …
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Physician burnout rates are declining nationwide, but overall, burnout is still a serious issue, according to the American Medical Association (AMA). The association’s data shows in 2025, 41.9% of physicians reported experiencing at least 1 symptom of burnout—which is an improvement from the 43.2% reporting burnout in 2024 and 48.2% in 2023. By specialty, the highest rates were reported in emergency medicine (49.8%), urological surgery (49.5%), hematology/oncology (49.3%), obstetrics and gynecology (45.7%), radiology (45.2%), and …
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JUCM Editor in Chief Lindsey E. Fish, MD, FCUCM, is now leading the College of Urgent Care Medicine (CUCM) and the Urgent Care College of Physicians (UCCOP) as the newly elected president. Members of the CUCM and UCCOP board of directors elected Fish during the 2026 Urgent Care Association (UCA) Conference in Chicago last week. CUCM and UCCOP, as affiliates of UCA, drive timely advances in clinical care, education, research, collaboration, and advocacy for urgent …
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In a large observational study of 521,244 adults with acute sinusitis published in JAMA, researchers found outcomes were similar between patients treated with standard-dose amoxicillin-clavulanate and those treated with standard-dose amoxicillin. The study compared outpatient outcomes from 2018 through 2023 for new users of amoxicillin-clavulanate (875–125 mg, 2 times daily) or amoxicillin (875 mg twice daily or 500 mg, 3 times daily). Treatment failure was low overall (3.1%) and did not differ between groups. Only …
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Emergency department (ED) visits for tick bites are surging nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of April 19, 2026, CDC recorded 85 per 100,000 ED visits were due to tick bites—more than double what is typically expected at this time of year. In Maryland, ExpressCare Urgent Care Centers are seeing an uptick in bites with 160 cases so far that were ultimately treated for Lyme disease, according …
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