Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

RSV Rates Doubled During 2022-2023 Flu Season

During the 2022-2023 season, pediatric hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) doubled compared to the previous year. This information comes from a study in JAMA Network Open involving 700,000 children, examining RSV-related hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions from July 1, 2017, to March 31, 2023. The hospitalization rate was 289.1 per 100,000 children in 2021-2022, which is consistent with the rates from 2017 to 2020. However in the following year, the 2022-2023 season …

CityMD Pays $12 Million in False Claims Settlement

CityMD, which operates more than 175 urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey, has agreed to pay $12 million to settle allegations of violating the False Claims Act. The allegations state that for 2 years, CityMD knowingly submitted false claims to a federal health program for uninsured patients for COVID-19 testing. The Justice Department says CityMD failed to adequately verify patients’ insurance status, submitting claims for those who already had insurance. Additionally, CityMD …

Highly Contagious Fungal Infections Emerge in US

Two new, highly contagious fungal infections that cause rashes have been identified in the United States by New York University Langone Health researchers, according to Becker’s. The fungi species Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII have produced severe skin infections, typically in men who have male sexual partners. Infections are challenging to treat, according to the news item, but they have been responding to treatment with terbinafine. A separate study also found that Trichophyton indotineae infections tend …

Why Urgent Care Marketers Need to Keep an Eye on SEO Tactics

Urgent care operators who rely on search engine optimization (SEO)—in other words, the art of building a website that Google will punch up to the top of search results for prospective patients—essentially have to guess at what digital tactics will get them into the top spot on Google. For the most part, Google’s algorithms have always been a closely guarded secret. Recently, media outlets like Inc. reported that some proprietary Google search algorithms were leaked. …

Daily Cannabis Users Outnumber Daily Alcohol Drinkers

Between 2008 and 2022, the per capita rate of cannabis use increased by 120%, according to research published in Addiction. And now for the first time, the number of Americans who use cannabis almost every day has surpassed the number who drink every day. In 2022, an estimated 17.7 million people reported using cannabis daily or near-daily. By comparison, the median drinker reported drinking alcoholic beverages on 4 to 5 days in the past month …

Patients Stop Weight-Loss Treatment Sooner Than They Should

Data suggests that many people who use GLP-1 drugs semaglutide and liraglutide to treat obesity and diabetes are not staying on their weight-loss plans as long as what is recommended, according to an issue brief from Blue Health Intelligence. Typically, 12 weeks is the accepted guideline for achieving meaningful weight loss. Yet, an analysis of claims from 170,000 plan members found that about 58% of people using GLP-1 medications were on their treatment plan for …

CDC Ramps up H5N1 Surveillance

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked state health officials to keep up with flu surveillance over the summer to watch for human-to-human spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus, according to CIDRAP. Flu surveillance generally wanes during the warmer months when there are fewer seasonal flu virus cases. H5N1 vaccines exist, but the nation is far from ready for a full-scale national vaccine program should the virus become a widespread health …

Return Visits and Hospitalization Rates of Adult Patients Discharged with Tachycardia After an Urgent Care Visit: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Urgent Message: Patients discharged from an urgent care clinic with tachycardia were found to have significantly higher odds of return visits to the urgent care and emergency department as well as higher odds of being admitted to the hospital within 7 days compared to non-tachycardic patients. Vitoria Regina Nunes Maia, MD; Ryan Loh, PhD; Michael Weinstock, MD; Lindsey E. Fish, MD Citation: Maia VRN, Loh R, Weinstock M, Fish L. Return Visits and Hospitalization Rates …

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Urgent Care Site Selection

Urgent Message: Location and accessibility are keys to success for any urgent care. Operators must avoid common pitfalls when evaluating a site for their next venture. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, is President of Experity Consulting and is Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Citation: Ayers, A. Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Urgent Care Site Selection. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(9): 22-25 Experience tells us that friendly service, competent providers, short wait …

It’s Time for Us to Get Involved

Roger Hicks, MD I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California, where, like numerous other parts of the world, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly routine occurrences. The “hot days” are hotter and more abundant, and the droughts are more severe. In turn, this has precipitated more wildfires, which lead to problematic smoke and hazardous air quality. When I opened my urgent care (UC) clinic 24 years ago, I never thought …

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