Ashley Blachford, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Abstracts in Urgent Care – July/August 2022

Colchicine in Acute Gout POCUS and Necrotizing Fasciitis Assessing Patient Satisfaction Misinterpreting Pediatric Radiographs Lung Ultrasound and Pediatric Pneumonia Diagnosing Pneumothorax A Review of the Evidence for Colchicine in Acute Gout Take-home point: Colchicine appears to be no more effective than NSAIDs for acute gout flares and evidence does not indicate greater efficacy at higher doses. Citation: Gottlieb M, Rabah W, Long B. Colchicine for acute gout. Acad Emerg Med. 2022;29(3):387-388. Epub ahead of print …

A 43-Year-Old Woman with a New Ulcer on One Hand

A 43-year-old woman presents with 2 weeks of a smooth nodule on her right hand. The patient denies recent travel but recalls that she “banged up” her hand while cleaning out a fresh-water fish tank prior to noticing the nodule. Past medical history is significant for renal transplantation. Exam reveals a tender, erythematous plaque with an ulcer on dorsal aspect of her hand. View the image and consider what your diagnosis and next steps …

A 12-Year-Old Boy with Knee Pain After a Baseball Game

The patient is a 12-year-old boy who presents with pain in his left knee. His mother reports that during a baseball game earlier in the day he slid hard into a base and came up limping. Review the x-rays taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.

Playing in the Band

I got my first guitar when I was 14. It was an Alvarez acoustic with an electric pick-up, and I played it every day—at least for a while. I thought it would make me cool and make the girls take notice. But after about a year, when neither of those things had happened, I just about gave up the guitar for good. There simply wasn’t much joy in always playing alone. What revived and has …

Urgent Care—It’s a Millennial’s Market

In terms of services offered, urgent care “should” appeal to patients of all ages. And it does. But to which age groups does it appeal the most? If you guessed “Millennials, ” you’re right—and that’s nothing new, according to the FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index 2022. In fact, those born between 24 and 39 years of age in 2020, when the data were collected, have been urgent care’s top customers for several years …

As COVID Turns Endemic, Investors Remain Bullish on Urgent Care Growth

Urgent message: De novo growth of urgent care continued through the pandemic. As COVID turns endemic, investors remain bullish on urgent care growth. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Despite concerns about fluctuating visit volumes and long-term sustainability, uncertainty and urgent care have always gone hand in hand. Case in point: Largely driven by flu, the urgent care industry has firsthand insight into years of flu research, seasonal trends, and vaccine efficacy. Yet amid everything we …

A 50-Year-Old Male Presents with Right Foot Pain

Images and case presented by ECG Stampede. KEY QUESTIONS With this condition, what three ECG features predict adverse outcomes and what is the expected progression of ECG changes? What is the treatment?

Decreasing Denials and Rejections Through Your Urgent Care Operating Model

A wise person once said, “If a claim is rejected or denied, the energy to get it paid is five times the energy if it went through as a clean claim.” Maybe it is only four times or three times the work, but the point is that we should all do everything we can to avoid rejections and denials! Unlike more complicated specialties subject to complicated coding, authorization, and other factors, in an urgent care …

Urgent Care Centers Can Reduce ED Referrals for CT Scans in Mild Head Injury with Integration of Brain Activity Biomarker

Urgent message: Referrals to the ED for CT scans were reduced when urgent care providers combined clinical judgement with EEG-based structural injury biomarker results. Such reductions could relieve the burden of referrals to EDs, minimize unnecessary radiation risk, yield better patient experience, and foster to potential cost savings. Tanvir Dara MD, FACEP; Elizabeth McCarty MD; Paul Meredith MD; Robert Mooney MD; David Porzio MD; and Alvaro Zeballos MD Citation: Dara T, McCarty E, Meredith P, …

Why Private Equity and Other ‘Smart Money’ Is Bullish on Brick-and-Mortar Urgent Care

Urgent message: Despite the current seasonal, postpandemic lull in volume, sophisticated investors are focused on the long-term growth prospects of urgent care in terms of new rooftops, new patient populations, new services, and new payers…among others. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Even for those who are “tenured” in the urgent care industry—the last 24 months of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a rough ride. If 100% were baseline volume, the average urgent care saw volume …