Ashley Blachford, Author at 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 …

Measles Case Presents in Seattle Urgent Care

Public health officials in the Seattle area are advising local residents of a pediatric case of measles that presented to Franciscan Urgent Care – West Seattle. Because the measles virus can remain in the air for hours, there may be concerns of potential exposure for anyone who was in the center between 3:30PM and 8:00PM on June 10, they say. The most likely time an exposed person might develop symptoms would be between June 17 …

Execs of Digital Platform Arrested for Fraudulent ADHD Prescriptions

Top officials of the digital health operator Done Global were arrested last week for alleged healthcare fraud that drove about $100 million worth of stimulant drugs into consumers’ hands. According to the Department of Justice press release, the CEO and the clinical leader of Done Global allegedly created a scheme to provide access to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs for consumers in exchange for monthly subscription fees on the telemedicine platform. The company spent millions …

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 …

Encouraging Trends Found in Recent UTI Prescribing Practices

Researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital analyzed US emergency department visits for pediatric urinary tract infections (UTIs) to uncover trends in antibiotic prescribing practices. As reported by CIDRAP, from 2011 to 2020, use of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for pediatric UTIs prescriptions declined from 20.6% to 9.9% of visits—which was considered encouraging against concerns for increasing drug resistance—and the use of enteral first-generation cephalosporins increased from 15.2% to 32.6% of visits. Meanwhile, use of enteral third-generation cephalosporins remained flat. …

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. …

New COVID Vaccines Will Target JN.1 and Subvariants

The Food and Drug Administration is considering a recommendation for tailoring the COVID-19 vaccines for the 2024-2025 respiratory virus season to the JN.1 variant, according to Reuters. It’s been the dominant variant this year, and shots may target JN.1’s subvariants as well. The subvariant KP.2 was estimated to account for more than 28% of COVID-19 cases over a 2-week period in mid-May. Not unlike the annual flu vaccine, COVID vaccines are developed months in advance …

MedWise Offers Warm Handoffs for Mental Healthcare

MedWise Urgent Care and the family services agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are partnering to provide easier access to mental healthcare services. Patients who walk into a MedWise clinic can connect with a specialist for behavioral health needs. A local crisis call center that provides support to more than 14,000 people a year will extended its services to 12 MedWise Urgent Care centers in the Tulsa area and northeast Oklahoma. In real-time, patients can collaborate with …

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 …