Practice Management
The patient is a 17-year-old female who presents with neck pain a day after attending a rock concert. She denies cigarette smoking, vaping, use of illicit substances, or physical trauma. View the image taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.
Read MoreSome urgent care insiders view telemedicine as a natural fit for our industry—an opportunity to give patients even more convenient access to competent healthcare providers, thereby increasing engagement and resulting in more care for more patients. Others just don’t see how it would be applicable, or fear that remote visits could result in overprescribing (especially for antibiotics and pain medications). Judging from data just released through the Urgent Care Associations 2021 Summer Benchmarking Report, widespread …
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A father brings his 5-year-old son to your urgent care center with a primary complaint of pain in his right foot. There was no report of trauma or injury. Dad has noticed the boy limping for the past few days and he points to the right foot. You note swelling in the midfoot area. The boy’s pain is evident as he walks with a limp and has tenderness in the area of swelling on the …
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Sergio Ramoa MD, MS Urgent Message: With variant COVID-19 mutations, incomplete herd immunity, and less restrictive government regulatory statues, it is important to remain vigilant with continued testing and prevention even with a full vaccinated history. Introduction In the United States, cases of COVID-19 have passed 32,000,000 and 570,000 for deaths. 141,000,000 cases and 3,000,000 deaths have afflicted the world. Approximately 9.6% of infected individuals are hospitalized and a majority have mild to moderate symptoms.1 …
Read MoreAs practices start offering vaccinations for COVID-19 to their patients, we are getting a lot of questions about whether the patient can be billed for the administration. The answer is an emphatic No. The Office of the Inspector General has received complaints from patients about charges by providers when getting their COVID-19 vaccines. So, on April 15, 2021, the Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi A. Grimm issued a message regarding provider compliance with the COVID-19 …
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Urgent message: Hours of operation changes may have more effect on leveling patient arrival volumes in a pediatric urgent care compared with an online queueing system alone. Aimy Patel, MD; Jennifer Johnson, MD; Brian R. Lee, PhD, MPH; Amanda Montalbano, MD, MPH Citation: Patel A, Johnson J, Lee BR, Montalbano A. More timely care: effect of online queuing vs change in hours of operation on hourly arrival volumes. a practice management reflection. J Urgent Care …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine and is President of Experity Networks. Urgent message: As COVID-19 has enabled many non-patient-facing employees to work from home, now urgent care operators must grapple with returning some of those employees to the office or otherwise managing a “hybrid” workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed every facet of daily life. Although its impact on the world of medicine is …
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Urgent message: While alarming to parents, febrile seizures in children typically are benign and self-limited. However, the possibility of a life-threatening etiology mandates that the urgent care provider determine the type of seizure and employ appropriate assessments based on factors specific to each case. Tiffany Addington, MD CASE A previously healthy 3-year-old boy presented to urgent care after having a seizure at home. He had a fever that morning and was given ibuprofen. His mother …
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The patient is a 34-year-old male who presents with bilateral ocular pain and burning. He is noted to have excessive tearing and continuous eye rubbing. He comments that his eyes itch persistently and that both eyes feel as if there is something in them. Scaly plaques and crust are visible along the top and bottom eyelid. View the picture taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is …
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A 38-year-old female with no past medical history presents to an urgent care with right upper quadrant abdominal pain and chest tightness, worsening for 1 week. She reports that her chest tightness is associated with shortness of breath, and is worse when walking and lying on her side. She denies fever, cough, dysuria, headache, or weakness. View the ECG and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. (Case presented by Catherine Reynolds, MD, …
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