Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Overcoming the Trauma of Making a Medical Error: Self-forgiveness is an Important Skill for Recovery

Have you ever made a mistake while practicing medicine that negatively affected somebody’s life? Even if you haven’t yet, you probably will if you practice long enough. Have you thought of how you will recover afterwards? Fatal errors can affect healthcare providers all through their career.1 Self-forgiveness after a medical error facilitates open mindedness, recovery from trauma, relief of mental and emotional anguish, re-engagement, growth, and regained appreciation for life.2 It is prudent for healthcare …

Don’t Forget about the Road Behind

If you’re reading this, you’ve survived 2020. Congratulations!—although it probably doesn’t feel like there’s much success to revel in at the moment. Indeed, this has been a year of hardship for everyone in some form and certainly, for many, it still may feel like there’s no end in sight. And it doesn’t seem like much cause for celebration to have dodged a bullet when you’re still staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. However, …

Necessity (or Not) for Patient Transfer from Urgent Care to the ED Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Urgent message: With patients who have sustained head injuries related to both sports- and non–sports-related activities presenting to urgent care more than ever before, it’s essential for the provider to have a nuanced understanding of which patients truly require transfer or referral to a high-acuity level of care, and which can be managed successfully and safely in the urgent care setting. Anthony P. Doran, PsyD; Robert G. Graw, Jr., MD; Marc Weber, MD; Stanford Coleman, …

2020 Be Remembered for—Beyond the Obvious?

If you surveyed Google data for 2020, you’d probably find that some of the most oft-used terms of the year were pandemic, covid, coronavirus, or even social distancing, work from home, and new normal. Let’s just say it’s been a year of seismic cultural change not only in the United States and across the globe, but also within the urgent care industry. While, clearly, there have been many hardships and tragedies this year, urgent care …

Left Eye Pain in an Overall Healthy 19-Year-old Female

Urgent message: Eye pain is a common presentation to the urgent care clinic. A provider needs to be able to recognize concerning components of history and physical which require further emergent evaluation. Lindsey E. Fish, MD CASE PRESENTATION History A 19-year-old female with past medical history significant only for scoliosis presents to an urgent care clinic complaining of left eye pain for the last 3 days. She reports that the pain feels like it is …

Abstracts in Urgent Care – December 2020

Projecting Outcomes in mTBI Concussion Recovery in Athletes A New Tool in Assessing Adolescent Concussion Head Injury in Patients Taking Warfarin Infants with Scalp Haematoma To CT or Not to CT Low-Risk Peds Head Injury? Posttraumatic Headache in Children Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Ivan Koay, MBChB, FRNZCUC, MD Identifying mTBI Patients with Long-Term Poorer Outcomes Key point: Patients with a history of psychiatric disorder, racial minorities, and those with lower level of education are most likely …

Employer COVID-19 Testing Needs are Not Fully Met; Rapid Testing is an Unprecedented Opportunity for Urgent Care

Urgent message: The critical role of rapid COVID-19 testing in keeping Americans working presents a unique, time-limited opportunity for urgent care centers to develop relationships with local employers. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care Online news magazine Vox recently reported data from the Urgent Care Association that urgent care centers were performing 725,000 tests per week as of late October, which amounted to 10% of the nation’s total …

A 33-Year-Old Woman with Blanching on Her Lower Legs

A 33-year-old woman presents to urgent care with symmetrical multiple blanching nodules that developed on her lower legs over the course of 2 weeks. The lesions were round and tender. She had also been fighting a fever, fatigue, and joint pain over the same period. Her only current prescription was for oral contraceptives. View the image taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on …

A 46-Year-Old Man with ‘Burning’ Epigastric Pain of Several Hours Duration

The patient is a 46-year-old male who presents epigastric pain that started several hours ago after a large meal. He describes the pain as a “burning” sensation. His personal medical history is notable for seizures. View the ECG and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. (Case presented by Benjamin Cooper, MD, FACEP, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.)

A 35-Year-Old Man with Shoulder Pain Weeks After a Car Accident

The patient is a 35-year-old male who presents with shoulder pain and weakness. He reports that the pain began when he had a “fender bender” 3 weeks ago. At the time, he didn’t think the pain was severe enough to warrant attention but he’s concerned that it’s “taking too long to get over this.” View the images taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be.