Practice Management
“Driving Change” is our overarching convention theme that we build on each year. When you are busy Driving Change in healthcare delivery, there aren’t a lot of breaks. In just the normal day-to-day of Urgent Care, you are anticipating, meeting, and exceeding the needs of your patients. You are doing the same for your occupational medicine employer customers. You are doing the same for your colleagues. You are doing the same for your strategic partners. …
Read More
Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FACEP, FCUCM “It only hurts right here,” Rich told me, pointing to a tender spot on his ribs under near his arm pit. I palpated his chest wall and observed as he winced when I hit the spot. “I just need to make sure I’m okay to go back to work.” Rich was middle-aged and had a mustache with hints of grey. He was a large man, but his potbelly was …
Read More
A 35-year-old man presents to urgent care complaining of severe posterior heel pain after a fall. He works for a local roofing company and fell a few feet from a ladder, landing on a hard surface. View the images taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the following page.
Read More
Alan A. Ayers, MBA, Macc Urgent Message: Urgent care is a consumer-driven phenomenon, and physician entrepreneurs continue to evolve the delivery of urgent care services in response to changing consumer preferences, both inside and beyond the brick-and-mortar facility. Citation: Ayers A. Thinking outside the box to bring urgent care to the patient. J Urgent Care Med. 2024;18(4): 31-33. While unregulated by most states, the term “urgent care” historically has come to mean a base offering …
Read More
Jeff Willis, MD Urgent Message: A well-told story explaining your thought process during a patient encounter will contain all the elements required for accurate coding. Attorneys are less likely to question care when a logical and complete story is clearly documented. Citation: Willis J. Charting with Purpose: Precision Strategies for Accurate Coding and Malpractice Defense. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(4) 13-16. As a medical legal consultant, I have learned medical malpractice claims are an …
Read More
Urgent Message: Deep tissue infections are possible considerations for diabetic patients presenting to urgent care with muscle tenderness who recently have had joint or bursal aspirations or injections. Citation: Mati M. Quadriceps Pyomyositis After Aspiration of Patellar Bursitis: A Case Report. J Urgent Care Med. 2024;18(4):25-27. Key Words: quadriceps myositis, diabetes, patellar bursitis, infectious disease Abstract Introduction Infectious myositis and pyomyositis are uncommon and therefore easily overlooked with serious potential complications of bursal aspirations. Clinical …
Read More
Morgan P. McBee, MD, CIIP; Leah S. McBee, MD Urgent Message: Urgent care clinicians need to provide relevant clinical history for radiology orders to ensure that the correct exam gets performed, an accurate ICD-10 code can be assigned for billing, and that radiologists are able to provide high-quality reports that contribute to timely and appropriate patient care in the urgent care setting. Citation: McBee M, McBee L. The Importance of Providing Clinical History for Radiology …
Read More
In late November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that the number of healthcare visits related to influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was particularly high among children, causing concern in communities about this “tripledemic” of respiratory illness. According to Experity data, the first week of October ushered in flu season for urgent care, when positivity rates for the three viruses among all urgent care center visits began to rise.1 Since …
Read More
An 18-year-old man presented to urgent care with fever, pain in multiple joints, and a back rash that had been progressive for the last few weeks. On examination of the back, there were multiple painful erythematous and violaceous papules and nodules as well as several large pustules. Some of the lesions were eroded and crusted. The patient reported that he recently started an intensive bodybuilding regimen with a 3 month use of anabolic-androgenic steroid/testosterone prior …
Read More
Can Artificial Intelligence Be Used as a Behavioral Health Tool for Adolescents? Take Home Point: Conversational Artificial Intelligence (CAI) may have potential as a tool to help address the unmet needs of adolescent behavioral health treatment. Citation: Opel D, Kious B, Cohen I. AI as a Mental Health Therapist for Adolescents. JAMA Pediatr. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.4215 Relevance: Mental health issues among adolescents have been rapidly increasing in prevalence. The increasing need for adolescent mental healthcare has led …
Read More