Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Practice Management

 

Urgent Care News

Rising Dengue Fever Cases Outpacing Last Year

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health advisory this week related …
Read More

Substantial Number of GLP-1 Drugs in the Pipeline Hint at Lower Future Costs

Drugmakers are developing new iterations of GLP-1 weight loss drugs that could result in fewer …
Read More

Rare Flu Strain Sparks Concerns For Treatment Resistance

At least two human cases of “dual mutant” strains of H1N1 influenza have been detected …
Read More

Americans Have Knowledge Gaps When It Comes to STIs

Many Americans lack information about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a new University of Pennsylvania Annenberg …
Read More

Those With PCPs Access UC for Convenience: Survey

More than 80% of consumers live or work within 15 minutes of an urgent care …
Read More

Original Research Articles

Fast Track Improves Patient Flow and Wait Times in the Pediatric Urgent Care: A Quality Improvement Project

Urgent Message: Fast trackmodels aim to improve patient throughput metrics for low-acuity patients. In this …
Read More

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 …
Read More

Influence of Clinical Setting on Antibiotic Prescribing Practices for Acute Otitis Media in Children at an Urban Academic Medical Center

Urgent Message: This retrospective chart review study found that the odds of children receiving an …
Read More

NSAIDs in Urgent Care and Emergency Departments: A Narrative Review

Urgent Message: This narrative review of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) characterizes the specific evidence-based indications, …
Read More

Using Urgent-Care-Based Telemedicine to Increase Primary Care Referrals: A Quality Improvement Project

Urgent Message: A quality improvement project demonstrated increased referral rates to primary care from an …
Read More

Clinical Articles

Dyspnea in the Urgent Care

Dyspnea in the Urgent Care: Differentiating Benign From ‘Can’t Miss’

Urgent Message: Patients commonly present with respiratory symptoms in the urgent care setting and not infrequently complain of some degree …
Read More
Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma Feature Image

A Review of Genital Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma Infections for the Urgent Care Clinician

Urgent Message: Mycoplasma species, most notably Mycoplasma genitalium are an increasingly recognized etiology of persistent urethral discomfort and non-gonococcal urethritis …
Read More
Pelvic Pain

How Useful Is Ultrasound in Acute Female Pelvic Pain?

Andrew Alaya, MD, MSc Urgent Message: For time-sensitive diagnoses related to acute pelvic pain, ultrasound is generally the recommended initial …
Read More
Isolated Sternal Fractures

Isolated Sternal Fractures After Trampoline Falls in Children: A Case Series

Urgent Message: Isolated sternal fractures in children can occur from relatively minor trauma, such as a trampoline fall, and patients …
Read More

Practice Management Articles

Need for STI Testing in Urgent Care

The Urgent Need for STI Testing in Urgent Care Centers

Urgent Message: With STI rates rising, urgent care centers have a unique opportunity to address a pressing public health need …
Read More
2024 Urgent Care’s Top 100

2024 Urgent Care’s Top 100 by Number of Locations

Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc The following table summarizes the 100 largest urgent care operators by number of locations as of …
Read More
Urgent Care Site Selection

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 …
Read More
Unclaimed Property for Urgent Care

What Does Unclaimed Property Mean for Urgent Care Providers?

Urgent Message: Undeliverable refunds of patient balances do not become property of the urgent care center, but rather, after effort …
Read More

Insights in Images Challenges

CASE REPORTS

Escalating Back Pain Leading to a Diagnosis of ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) in Urgent Care: A Case Report

Urgent Message: Acute coronary syndromes (ACS), including ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), may present with predominant back …
Read More

Atypical Chest X-ray Appearance in a Patient with Cough: A Case Report

Urgent Message: The azygos lobe may be apparent on a chest x-ray and is a relatively …
Read More

Fever of Unknown Origin: A Case Report of Babesiosis Infection

Batsheva R. Sholomson, DO; Danielle Langan, DO; Abbas Husain, MD; Shorok Hassan, DO Urgent Message: With …
Read More

Intraoral Angioedema After Olanzapine Overdose: A Case Report

Urgent Message: Patients may present to an urgent care facility with intraoral angioedema, a life-threatening emergency …
Read More

Expanding the Differential of Thunderclap Headache Beyond Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Case Report

Urgent Message: Cerebral venous thrombosis is a serious cause of headache that can present in a …
Read More

HEALTH LAW

Changing an Employee from Full-Time to Part-Time Status

Urgent message: Whether due to reduced staffing needs or employee preference, some employees in urgent care …
Read More

Are Urgent Care Providers Liable if They Don’t Test Patients for COVID?

Click Here to download the PDF. Urgent message: As the severity of newer strains of SARS-CoV-2 …
Read More

Who Can Take X-Rays in an Urgent Care Center?

Urgent message: Given that x-ray is a differentiating feature of “urgent care” and the current challenges …
Read More

What Qualifies Someone to Take X-Rays in the Urgent Care Center? It All Depends on Where You’re Located

X-rays are high on the list of services patients expect urgent care centers to provide when …
Read More

Avoiding Defamation Lawsuits in Urgent Care

Urgent message: People are unlikely to trust their healthcare to a provider with a sullied reputation, …
Read More

JUCM CAREER CENTER

Download Past Issues

 

June 2024: Vital Signs: Pay Attention to Tachycardia Before Discharge

VIEW ISSUES ARCHIVE

CLINICAL CHALLENGES

60-Year-Old With Annoying Cough

A 60-year-old man presents to urgent care complaining of an annoying cough for several months. He states that he frequently …
Read More

15-Year-Old Gasping for Air

A 15-year-old male with no significant past medical history presents after he was noted to be gasping for air and …
Read More

29-Year-Old With Stinging Sensation

A 29-year-old woman presents to urgent care for a painful rash that developed on her arm.  It started 1 day …
Read More

48-Year-Old With Foot Pain After Hiking

A 48-year-old man presents to urgent care complaining of pain in his right foot after hiking last weekend on a …
Read More

42-Year-Old With Stinging Sensation

A 42-year-old woman presented to urgent care early in the morning saying that she felt a stinging sensation on her …
Read More

OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE

Does Concentra’s New Acquisition Foreshadow a New Era for UC and Occ Med?

On the surface, it seems like the kind of event that has become commonplace in urgent care: A large, national …
Read More

Update: The COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Many Businesses Is Off—Again

Just when you thought you had clarity on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s mandate to vaccinate workers at businesses …
Read More

That Vaccine Mandate for Private Businesses That Was Called Off? It’s on Again—and the Clock Is Ticking

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s plan to require employers with 100 or more workers to institute a COVID-19 vaccine …
Read More

Your Occ Med Clients Need Your Support with the New COVID-19 ETS—Immediately

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration just issued an Emergency Temporary Standard intended to protect workers from getting infected with …
Read More

More People Are Trudging Off to Work on Site. Do You Know Who’s at Greatest Risk for COVID-19?

While some employers are content to maintain remote or hybrid work situations for their workers, either because of strong stances …
Read More

Revenue Cycle Management

What Did We Learn From the Change Healthcare Outage?

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC Nearly all of us in the healthcare ecosystem were impacted by the cyberattack on …
Read More

Contracting: Primary Care Versus Urgent Care

Heather Rothermel When considering contracting for your clinic, it will be important to know how you plan to market your …
Read More

Why Does Start-Up Contracting Take So Long?

Heather Rothermel Consider this scenario: You’ve decided to open an urgent care center. You’ve secured funding, found the perfect location, …
Read More

What is a False Claim?

Benjamin Barlow, MD; Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC The False Claims Act (FCA) is a federal statute enacted in …
Read More

Nine Recurring Coding Pitfalls for Urgent Care Clinicians to Avoid

Brad Laymon, PA, CPC, CEMC Over my career as a physician assistant, I have delved extensively into the intricacies of …
Read More

DEVELOPING DATA

Categorization of Codes Most Frequently Used in Urgent Care

International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes—maintained by the World Health Organization and published in the United States by the Centers …
Read More

Prescription Duration for Urgent Care Patients

Whereas primary care is focused on prevention and management of chronic conditions, urgent care has historically been defined as episodic …
Read More

Urgent Care De Novo Growth by Operator Size, 2022-2023

A compilation of 2022 and 2023 de novo urgent care center data shows a 7% decline in new locations: from …
Read More

How Urgent Care is Becoming More Corporatized

In 2023, the urgent care industry added 1,057 de novo locations—new sites that did not previously exist. But these new …
Read More

Robust Urgent Care De Novo Growth Continues

The urgent care industry continues to add de novo centers, according to data from Experity and National Urgent Care Realty …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care

Abstracts in Urgent Care – July/August 2024

Use of NEXUS II Clinical Decision Tool for Blunt Head Injuries in Elderly Patients Take Home Point: Older patients with …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care – June 2024

Using AI to Detect Myocardial Infarction Take Home Point: The use of an occlusive myocardial infarction (OMI) artificial intelligence (AI) …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care – May 2024

Encouraging Shorter Course Antibiotic Prescribing Take Home Point: In this quality improvement project, both education with performance feedback in combination …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care – April 2024

Rehabilitation in Post-Acute Anterior Shoulder Dislocation Take Home Point: This study suggests that routinely referring patients to a program of …
Read More

Abstracts in Urgent Care – March 2024

Omicron versus Flu & RSV – Which is Most Dangerous for Children? Take Home Point: In this study, hospitalization rates …
Read More

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

‘As Little as Necessary…’– A Mantra for Urgent Care

“Do as little as necessary, not as much as possible.” This is the mantra I recite throughout every urgent care …
Read More

Our Success in Urgent Care is Defined by How We Play Our ‘Greatest Hits’

Recently one evening, I meandered into a bar on iconic 6th Street in Austin, Texas— America’s epicenter for live music …
Read More

‘What Happens If We Do Nothing?’ Is Still the Right Question

Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FACEP, FCUCM “It only hurts right here,” Rich told me, pointing to a tender spot on …
Read More

Broader Issues Surround ‘Work Note Seeking’

Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FCUCM, FACEP Who among us has worked a single urgent care (UC) shift without at least …
Read More

What Happens If We Do Nothing?

Joshua Russell, MD, MSc, FCUCM, FACEP In its most modern form, medicine revolves around action. We are trained as clinicians …
Read More

Please log-in/sign-up to download these issues.