Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Recommendations Say More Patients Should Start Antihypertensive Medication

Recent updates to blood pressure (BP) guidelines published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology have lowered the threshold for initiating hypertension treatment among low-risk patients. According to the 2025 joint guideline from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, adults without clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) and with an estimated 10-year CVD risk below 7.5% should begin antihypertensive therapy if their average systolic BP remains at 130 mm Hg or …

Frequent Rhinovirus May Protect Against COVID

Children often experience less severe symptoms from the SARS-CoV-2 infection, and a study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that kids’ frequent rhinovirus infections may be at least one factor that offers protection from both the risk and severity of SARS-CoV-2. Participants in this 6-month study (May 2020-February 2021) who had rhinovirus in the previous 30 days had a 48% lower risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and, if infected, showed 9.6-fold lower viral loads (p=0.0031). …

So Far, Hospital Closures In 2025 Are Poised To Outpace Last Year

In 2024, a total of 25 U.S. hospitals closed, as reported by Becker’s. Most of them cited changing community needs, rising operational costs, and evolving care models as reasons for ceasing operations. So far for this year, 19 hospitals have already closed, a pace that forecasts more unstable markets and unmet healthcare needs across the United States. Several hospitals included in this ongoing list have shuttered emergency departments, and all have produced job loss among …

Online Healthcare Reviews Offer an Earful of Feedback

In an analysis of 1 million online Yelp reviews across 138,605 U.S. healthcare providers, researchers identified patterns and words linked to patient satisfaction by leveraging machine learning. More than 46% of the reviews were negative (1-2 stars), and 50.1% were positive (4-5 stars). The mean (SD) rating was 3.1 stars, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open. Negative feedback often cited administrative problems (such as unfair payment and poor phone interactions), and positive …

GoHealth Urgent Care Inks Joint Venture With Community Health Network

GoHealth Urgent Care has announced another health system joint venture, this time with Community Health Network in central Indiana. As part of the deal, 6 existing Community MedCheck urgent care centers will transition later this year to the Community-GoHealth Urgent Care brand, according to a press release. Future growth through new rooftops is also part of the long-term strategy. Earlier this month, GoHealth announced a similar joint venture for 81 UPMC centers in Pennsylvania and …

Smart Ring With AI Model Predicts Viral Respiratory Infection

It seems that artificial intelligence (AI) models can detect early acute systemic inflammation in response to viral respiratory tract infections (VRTIs) through biometric data collected from wearable devices, according to a small study published in Lancet Digital Health. In the prospective study, 55 healthy adults aged 18–59 years were monitored before and after receiving a live attenuated influenza vaccine, which simulated real-world infection. Participants continuously wore a smart ring, smart watch, and smart shirt, which …

Pay For Urgent Care Physicians Grows the Most, Although Still Low on the List

A new analysis examining survey data from 37,000 physicians across all healthcare specialties found the average physician reported a 3.7% increase in pay, following a nearly 6% increase from the same survey just a year ago, conducted by physician-networking platform Doximity. The perpetual gender gap—in which women physicians are paid significantly less than their male counterparts—shows no sign of catching up. In this year’s survey, there is a 26% gap between women and men after …

CMS Aspires to Build Ambitious National Provider Directory

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is aiming to construct a healthcare resource that has been notoriously difficult to create: a national provider directory. For decades, policies attempting to hold managed care organizations responsible for keeping up-to-date directories of their in-network physician practices, hospitals, surgery centers, and the like have been impractical for insurers to comply with and nearly impossible for policymakers to enforce. Reports of error-filled “ghost networks” that misrepresent the real-world …

AAP Stands By Flu Vaccination Without Formulation Preference

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is now recommending flu vaccination for all individuals aged 6 months and older for the 2025–2026 season, emphasizing that any age-appropriate vaccine should be delivered without preference for a certain product or formulation, as posted in a prepublication release in Pediatrics. Contrasting with recent federal moves, AAP is advising against avoiding or delaying vaccination in order to seek out specific thimerosal-free options. Although the Centers for Disease Control and …

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