Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Surprisingly, Portal Messaging Doesn’t Reduce In-Person Visits

A large-scale analysis of electronic health record data from more than 2,000 hospitals and 47,000 clinics found that secure patient portal messaging has become a component of outpatient care rather than a replacement for office visits, as published in JAMA. Investigators analyzed communication trends among active patients from 2020–2025 using nearly 8 billion office visits, portal messages, telephone encounters, and telehealth visits. Portal messages coming in from patients rose from 0.99 to 2.50 messages per …

As Flu Season Fades, Urgent Care Volume Remains Solid

Now that spring has arrived, respiratory virus season seems to be winding down across the country, according to the latest FluView report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Positive test rates for influenza were 9.8% for the week ending March 28, 2026, trending down as compared to the previous week (11.5%), and outpatient visits for respiratory illness also decreased to 2.6% of visits, down from 2.9%. In urgent care specifically, this month’s flu …

CDC: More Kids Visited Urgent Care in 2022

More parents are bringing their kids to urgent care, according to new national trend data captured in a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The percentage of children and adolescents (17 years old and younger) who had at least 1 visit to an urgent care center or a retail clinic in the past 12 months increased from 21.6% in 2021 to 28.4% in 2022. When CDC broke down the data into …

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