Practice Management
A survey of 10,865 full-time physicians found that in terms of total compensation, female physicians earn just 78 cents for each $1 that male physicians earn—a gender pay gap of 22%. In actual dollars, female physicians reported average annual compensation of $354,000, compared to the $463,000 for male physicians. The gap in pay among physicians is substantially wider than the gap recorded in other industries across the U.S. labor market, according to Merit Health, which …
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Despite ongoing education and stewardship programs, inappropriate antibiotic prescribing is still common in high-income countries, especially for respiratory illnesses. A review of 12 observational studies from primary care settings in the United States, Europe, and Asia between 2021 and 2025, published in Cureus, found that when analyzing prescribing patterns by category, respiratory tract visits contributed to the largest overall share of inappropriate prescriptions—even when their rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing was not the highest. Reported …
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Researchers found that both the Canadian Syncope Risk Score (CSRS) and the FAINT score can inform clinical management of syncope in a prospective, observational study validating the tools published in JAMA Network Open. The primary outcome was a serious adverse outcome within 30 days of an emergency department (ED) visit. Among 1,263 patients aged 40 years or older with syncope or presyncope presenting to 6 urban EDs in the United States, 5.9% experienced a serious …
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When major health systems acquire off-campus clinics, they’ve historically been able to use their main hospital’s assigned 10-digit National Provider Identifier (NPI) number to bill Medicare for routine visits at the off-campus site, securing significantly higher facility-level reimbursements. But starting in 2028, a new bipartisan policy will require hospitals to use distinct NPIs when billing for Medicare services provided at their off-campus outpatient sites. This concept of “site-neutral payment” will impact urgent care centers, essentially …
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A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found azithromycin did not lead to a greater reduction in symptom severity among young children presenting to the emergency department (ED) with moderate-to-severe wheezing. The study included 840 children aged 18–59 months—62% of which tested positive for potentially pathogenic airway bacteria, and 86.1% had detectable respiratory viruses. Rhinovirus was the most common (72.5%). In the study, conducted at 8 U.S. pediatric EDs, children received …
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A study at the urgent care clinic of King Saud Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, found patients reported high overall satisfaction with their urgent care experience, as published in Cureus. More than 91% of patients said they were satisfied or very satisfied, and 93.5% said they would return for future care. Most patients (91.5%) were assessed within 30 minutes, including 65.5% seen within 15 minutes. Patients seen within 30 minutes were significantly more likely …
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Weekly emergency department (ED) visits for tick bites have reached their highest April levels since 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—reaching 104 per 100,000 ED visits. Last year, just 14 states accounted for ~90% of U.S. Lyme disease cases, according to Harvard Health, and the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, and upper Midwest are the regions of highest risk. Even so, the reported data doesn’t capture urgent care’s role in treating tick bites …
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A physician leader/owner of an urgent care clinic in Missouri was recently charged with billing fraud and illegal prescribing of controlled substances. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the alleged fraud scheme included the physician billing Medicare and Medicaid for medical services as if he had performed them himself—even though the care was actually provided by assistants who had not yet entered residency and thus were not authorized to file claims. It further alleges …
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Shorter courses of antibiotics may be a reasonable option for kids with uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs), according to a meta-analysis of 13 randomized trials involving 2,010 children published in Clinical Microbiology and Infection. Researchers found that shorter antibiotic courses of 2–5 days prescribed for acute, uncomplicated pediatric UTIs produced outcomes comparable to longer courses of 7 days or more. Relapse rates were similar between groups (risk ratio [RR] 1.08), with only 8 more relapses …
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A systematic review of 43 randomized trials involving more than 14,000 patients found that evidence shows several newer calcitonin gene–related peptide (CGRP)-targeted drugs can reduce chronic migraine frequency by about 2 headache days per month compared with placebo. In the review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers also found the CGRPs may achieve at least a 50% reduction in migraine frequency, although those findings were sourced from a limited number of studies. Botulinum …
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