Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Majority of Symptomatic Respiratory Infections Managed At Home

Respiratory viruses can impact infants more severely than older children, and symptoms run the gamut, according to a new study in Pediatrics. Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center followed 1,223 healthy children from infancy through age 5 from November 2019 to August 2025 and analyzed 15,898 laboratory-confirmed, single-pathogen respiratory infections to characterize symptom patterns and clinical outcomes. Rhinorrhea, cough, malaise, and fatigue were the most common symptoms. The authors also found that compared with …

HMPV Seems To Peak In April

As every urgent care clinician knows, acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) often present with many of the same symptoms, such as cough, fever, and rhinitis. A recent outpatient study of 7,143 patients with ARI published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases found that human metapneumovirus (HMPV) accounted for 4.7%–7.3% of cases during the 5 influenza seasons the authors examined (from 2016–2022), compared with 11.3%–13.6% for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and 30.2%–37.1% for influenza. HMPV circulated later in …

Data Quantify Value of Physician Ed in Reducing Antibiotic Prescriptions

Kaiser Permanente in Southern California reports that using computer alerts to inform physicians when antibiotics may not be the best course of treatment for sinusitis reduced the chance of an antibiotic being prescribed—with some qualifiers. The study, published recently in the American Journal of Managed Care, tracked nearly 22,000 cases of acute sinusitis in adults in primary care and urgent care offices. Researchers found that clinical decision support was associated with a 22% decrease in …

A Multimodal Intervention to Reduce Antibiotic Use for Common Upper Respiratory Infections in the Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: Upper respiratory infections (URIs) are the most common presenting complaint in urgent care. Regardless of etiology or provider specialty, antibiotics are prescribed 60% of the time for the treatment of URIs, contributing to drug-resistant respiratory organisms. Employing a multimodal intervention, the authors we were able to appreciate a modest, statistically significant decrease in the rate of antibiotic prescribing among urgent care providers. Introduction Antimicrobial resistance is arguably one of the greatest risks to …

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