Counterpoint: Readers React to JUCM Original Research

Counterpoint: Readers React to JUCM Original Research

Andrew Grock, MD; Manuel Celedon, MD; and Jonie Hsiao, MD ​​It was with great interest that we read Most Clinicians Are Still Not Comfortable Sending Chest Pain Patients Home with a Very Low Risk of 30-day Major Adverse Cardiac Event (MACE) by Dr. Michael Weinstock, et al in the February 2021 issue of JUCM.1 In this study, the authors surveyed attendants at an emergency medicine conference in 2018 as to their comfort level discharging patients …

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An Ominous Trend For Urgent Care

An Ominous Trend For Urgent Care

To My Colleagues: I am writing to alert you to an ominous and pernicious trend in our industry that we must collectively address or we will face marginalization or even extinction in the years ahead. This may sound alarmist, but please hear me out. I opened my first clinic in 1987 when “urgent care” was barely a recognized term. I was there when the Urgent Care Association (at that time known as the Urgent Care …

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Why is the Waiting Room Still Empty? Perspectives from a Pediatric Urgent Care Physician

In February 2020, the first U.S. case of community spread COVID-19 was identified at a pediatric urgent care center in Seattle, reinforcing the fact that UC is on the frontlines of healthcare. Between March and May 2020, the majority of healthcare services saw a significant downturn in volumes as patients quarantined and businesses shutdown. But as the number of domestic COVID-19 cases increased, many general urgent care centers saw unprecedented volume surges that continued throughout …

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Pitfalls of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS)—A Perspective

Pitfalls of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS)—A Perspective

Urgent message: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is well established as an imaging tool in the urgent care center. Although it is generally considered safe and easy to use, safety and hygiene considerations are frequently ignored—possibly leaving patients at risk for infection and excessive radiation exposure. Avijit Barai MBBS, MRCS, MSc, PgCertCPU, FRNZCUC; Martin Necas, MMedSonography, AMS, RDMS, MRT, RVT; and Bruce Lambie, MBBS, FACEM INTRODUCTION Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is well established as an imaging tool in …

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