Practice Management
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced federal strategies to strengthen the national response to Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. HHS also pledged to reduce Lyme disease cases by 25% by 2035. As part of the new initiatives, a large pilot program led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and HHS will bring tick-control researchers together to deploy practical strategies to reduce tick populations on wildlife before they can …
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded approval for insulin inhalation powder for use in children and adolescents aged 6 and older living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, according to the product manufacturer’s press release. Previously, the inhaled insulin was only approved for adults. The oral inhaler device and insulin inhalation powder deliver insulin into the bloodstream through the lungs, enabling rapid absorption of insulin into systemic circulation. Marketed as Afrezza, …
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According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 27.6% of Americans had at least 1 visit to an urgent care center in 2024. By comparison, only 19% of Americans reported visiting a retail health clinic in 2024, suggesting urgent care is the clear setting of choice for on-demand care. Looking at the populations by age, adults ages 18–64 represented the largest portion of the total urgent care visits (28.9%). Children …
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Recently, the Rochester Regional Health system in New York discontinued on-site x-ray services at 2 urgent care centers and reallocated those radiology technologists (RTs) to other urgent cares in the system that have higher patient demand, according to a local news site. Such optimization strategies could become more common in urgent care, given the state-specific requirements for radiology staff and the RT shortages across the nation. The reallocations of staff and discontinuations of x-ray services …
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American Family Care (AFC) has announced the appointment of Rhett Lankford as president. In the role, Lankford will report to Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Morgan and help lead AFC’s ongoing expansion efforts. According to the announcement, Lankford brings more than 20 years of experience in healthcare operations and management services organizations (MSOs). Most recently, he served as senior vice president and general manager at NAPA Managed Services, where he oversaw anesthesia-MSO operations across hospitals, surgical …
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After visit summaries (AVSs) are the main tool to communicate appropriate follow-up recommendations for patients after an episode of care, and for some providers in Medicare enhanced-payment contracts, the summaries are a requirement. Yet some clinicians might view the task of writing AVSs as a time-consuming burden, especially when patients may not even read their summaries. An analysis published in JAMA Network Open of more than 6.2 million ambulatory visits from June 1, 2018, to …
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A 12-year-old male presents to urgent care with his mother for left groin and buttock pain since acute onset while running in a track meet earlier today. He reports that he felt a pop while running a sprint race and was subsequently unable to finish the race or bear weight on his left leg due to pain. He has no other past medical history and takes no medications. Physical exam reveals that he is afebrile …
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A 39-year-old male presents to the local urgent care reporting an intensely itchy rash for the past 3 weeks that is getting gradually worse. The patient has a history of HIV infection, denies any recent travel or trauma, and is not taking any medications. Physical exam shows he is afebrile with normal vital signs. He has diffuse papular lesions to the trunk and arms ranging from pink to dark brown in color, some with notable …
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The family of a 42-year-old male brings the patient to urgent care for altered mental status believing that they had arrived at an emergency department. His family found him on the floor at home with a non-functioning heater on a very cold day. He is bradycardic and ill-appearing. An ECG is obtained.
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Cesar Mora Jaramillo, MD, FAAFP, FCUCM, DABFM With more than 15,000 centers and 200 million visits a year, urgent care centers (UCCs) play a critical role in the U.S. healthcare ecosystem.[1] Despite its impact and rapid growth, urgent care (UC) remains a unique clinical field that has not yet been matched with a standardized training or certification pathway for physicians. This needs to change. Practicing high-quality UC medicine requires a distinct skill set, including rapid …
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