bnapolitano, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Who Are the Shining Stars of the Urgent Care Galaxy?

True urgent care innovators—including a long-time JUCM contributor and supporter—and humanitarians are being honored with Urgent Care Foundation Awards in 2020. Perhaps most familiar to JUCM readers will be David Stern, MD, who is set to receive the Foundation’s Outstanding Achievement Award for his long history of having a positive impact on the industry. Dr. Stern created an urgent care-specific electronic medical records and practice management software company, Practice Velocity, which recently merged with DocuTAP …

Are Emerging Home Testing Options ‘Disruptive’—or a New Opportunity for Urgent Care?

Not long ago, LabCorp started offering consumers the opportunity to order and administer some 90 different lab tests for themselves. Now comes word that Amazon is looking for a way to get into the home diagnostics business; according to CNBC, the company recently tried, but failed, to acquire a diagnostic start-up called Confer Health. Given Amazon’s ability to reach patients at home 24 hours a day, it stands to reason that a successful entry into …

More Patients Slip Sliding Away—into the Urgent Care Center

With the advent of holiday cheer and office parties comes the resurgence of cold-weather injuries, many of which will present to urgent care centers. In addition to ensuring staff and inventories are suitably prepared, some urgent care operators are also reaching out to the public with advice on avoiding injury—but also with the subtle message that their clinic is prepared to treat them at a moment’s notice. American Family Care, for example, got news stories …

A 2-Year-Old with Foot Pain After Jumping Off a Bed

The patient is a 2-year-old boy who presents with a painful, swollen foot after jumping off a bed. You observe that he limps when trying to walk. View the image taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be.

New Merger Creates the Busiest Urgent Care Operation in Georgia

Piedmont Urgent Care by WellStreet and Summit Urgent Care have gotten together in a merger that creates the largest urgent care network, by patient visits, in the state of Georgia. The move diversifies the geographic areas for both companies; where Summit’s locations have been primarily in suburbs surrounding the city, Piedmont’s clinics are spread throughout more urban Atlanta neighborhoods. The ability to reach patients in both types of neighborhoods could give the newly formed operation …

Patients Are Not Getting the Point: Vaping Kills

Deaths attributed to e-cigarette, or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) have started rising so fast that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is updating figures weekly. The latest figures, from December 10, note 2,291 cases in which patients have had to be hospitalized across all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Fifty-two people in the U.S. have died across 26 states and the District of Columbia. The stereotypical image …

Fresh Insights Into Responsible Antibiotic Prescribing; the Numbers May Surprise You

A study newly published in BMJ reaffirms that too many inappropriate prescriptions for antibiotics are being written, especially during influenza season. It also reflects some ambiguity in prescribers’ reporting habits, however, and offers some insights into which drugs are being prescribed the most. The authors found that 25% of antibiotic prescriptions are written for “inappropriate” reasons, and that 18% reflect cases in which documentation was insufficient to determine whether a prescription was appropriate or not. …

Know the Difference Between Male and Female MI Symptoms? (Hint: It’s a Trick Question)

Conventional wisdom has it that woman and men experience symptoms of heart attack in different ways. As is often the case in life, however, the conventional wisdom may have it all wrong. According to a study just published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, men and woman may actually experience heart attacks in the same ways—information that’s essential for you to know the next time a patient presents while experiencing a possible MI. …

Talk About Good News (Literally): ‘Denver Health’s Urgent Care Helps Patients Lower Bills’

The headline in quotes above actually appeared in Colorado’s Sky-Hi News this week, reflecting a self-assessed trend at Denver Health’s Winter Park Medical Center. The facility opened its own urgent care location almost a year ago, with the notion that the move might help alleviate crowding in its emergency room. Being at the base of a ski resort, however, they’ve seen more volume than a standard business model might predict; more predictably, they’ve found that …

Patterns Emerge as Flu Season Progresses—Know What (and Who) to Look for

In an ordinary year, this would be early to start recognizing trends in the influenza season. Sadly, this is not an ordinary year, however, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an early start to flu season is hitting more of the most vulnerable patients than ever. Numbers are up across the board, but those over age 64 and under age 4 are being afflicted disproportionately at this point (3.6 cases per 100,000 …

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