Practice Management
The patient is a 24-year-old male who reports to urgent care with right ankle pain after falling from a ladder while cleaning out the gutters at his parents’ home. He reports that he was only a few rungs up but that he landed “awkwardly” and immediately felt a sharp pain on the front of the ankle. He is unable to bear weight but denies any numbness or tingling. View the x-ray taken and consider what …
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Remember the fall of last year—when the nation and world pined for an expedient end to 2020, as if such an arbitrary change as turning a page on the calendar could somehow reverse our collective fortune? Unsurprisingly when January 2021 arrived, all our woes were not magically and immediately remedied. In fact, the start of this year was among the most grim in U.S. history: nearly a quarter of a million new cases were being …
Read MoreThere’s no gentle way to put it: Members of the Millennial generation simply are not as interested in having a traditional relationship with a primary care provider as their predecessors have been. That shouldn’t be surprising, though, given that each successive generation seems to drift farther from that model of care. Where 82% of Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) report having a primary care provider, the same can be said for only …
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It has been brought to our attention that the publication titled “An Urgent Care Approach to Fishhook Removal” originally published in June 2021 digital edition of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine on June 1, 2021 (“Publication”), contains several changes made during the editing process performed by JUCM which the authors took issue with and subsequently demanded the Publication be retracted. Accordingly, at the request of the authors, Anthony G. Stanley, MD and Jorge Murillo, …
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Urgent message: Chief complaints may lead the provider “off the trail” of a more urgent diagnosis. Anchoring bias occurs when relying too heavily on this first piece of information. Providers must remain vigilant for the subtle and nonspecific warning signs of pulmonary embolism. Ryan Hagan, PA-C and Christina Gardner, DHSc, MBA, PA-C INTRODUCTION Chief complaints are used to guide decision-making and may suggest an organ system, but a life-threatening condition may be found in a …
Read MoreLight Exercise and mTBI Asymptomatic Hypertension—What’s the Risk? Racial Factors in Pain Treatment Supplemental Oxygen in ACS Shorter Courses of Antibiotics for Pediatric CAP Who’s Behind that COVID-19 Mask? COVID-19 Infection in Healthcare Workers Light Exercise for Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) Take-home point: There is no benefit for recovery in patients with mTBI randomized to light exercise compared with standard care. Citation: Varner C, Thompson C, de Wit K, et al. A …
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The patient is a 32-year-old man who presents with pain over the distal phalanx of the middle finger after dropping a 20-pound weight on his finger while constructing a home gym set-up. The skin is unbroken, but pain is evident upon palpation over the distal phalanx of the middle finger. Neurovascular status is intact. View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case …
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Urgent message: Urgent care centers equipped to draw blood and collect other specimens are well positioned to create new revenue streams related to the booming direct-to-consumer lab movement. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Strategic Initiatives at Experity. People are taking more responsibility for their health than ever before. Whether that means practicing wellness promotion activities or actively seeking care without referrals, today’s healthcare landscape looks much different than it did 20 years …
Read MoreHistory: A 67-year-old female presents to urgent care complaining of one episode of syncope earlier in the day. No seizure-like activity was noted by the family and she returned to baseline within a minute. She has a past medical history of end-stage renal disease on scheduled hemodialysis, hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and chronic nausea. Medications include aspirin, insulin, amlodipine, hydralazine, ondansetron, metoclopramide, and amiodarone. View the ECG taken and consider what your diagnosis …
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The patient is a 36-year-old man who presents with wrist pain after “hitting it on something.” Further history reveals that he punched a wall in a fit of anger and felt sharp pain immediately. He has no past medical history and takes no medications. View the images taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.
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