bnapolitano, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

A 48-Year-Old Woman with a Facial Lesion

Case The patients is a 48-year-old woman who presents with a single lesion on her cheek/face. As a healthcare worker herself, she says she is concerned that the excoriation might get infected. She denies knowing anything about the possible cause, but insists on receiving treatment. Notably, she is a frequent visitor to your urgent care center in spite of the fact that she is in excellent physical health. However, she has been diagnosed with borderline …

The Consequences of a Medical Provider Quitting Without Notice

Urgent message: Patients and communities rely on access to urgent care to augment primary care shortages and decant over-crowded Emergency Departments. A provider who quits without notice causes scheduling disruptions which could be considered “patient abandonment.” Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine Once a medical provider has accepted a patient into her practice, she is …

Abdominal Pain in the Younger Adult: Let’s Not Forget Acute Diverticulitis

Urgent message: The differential diagnosis of abdominal pain is challenging because many symptoms and signs are nonspecific and because patients might often have concomitant medical conditions that could cause abdominal pain. Although diverticulitis is more common in older patients, failure to consider diverticulitis in the differential diagnosis of abdominal pain in the younger adult could lead to delayed diagnosis and undesirable complications. Fabrizia Faustinella, MD, PhD, FACP and L. Alexandre Frigini, MD Introduction Diverticular disease …

A 2-Year-Old Girl with Leg Pain After Jumping on a Trampoline

Case The patient is a 2-year-old girl who is brought to your urgent care center by her parents several hours after jumping on a trampoline with her friend, but that she “seemed fine” when the mother picked her up to come home. View the images taken and consider what the diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page. The Resolution Differential Diagnosis Acute transverse fracture of the …

Creating the ‘Ideal’ Urgent Care Experience

Urgent message: For owner-operators truly committed to creating “the ideal urgent care experience”—a thriving operating model that benefits patients, employees, and investors alike —a commitment to operational excellence, a perfecting of the patient experience, and the embrace of an empowered, engaged employee culture must form the bedrock principles of their practice. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Driven largely by millennials and Gen Xer’s who place a premium on convenience, alongside Baby Boomers utilizing their newly …

Urgent Care Is an Appropriate Setting for Any Age—But What Ages Are Showing Up the Most?

This issue of JUCM, without any plan to do so, demonstrates the age range of patients who realize the value of high-quality, relatively low-cost, convenient care on a walk-in basis. In the preceding pages, there’s an in-depth report on how to ensure you’re prepared to provide the appropriate care for a child who’s been vomiting for previously unexplained reasons. Abstracts in Urgent Care features analysis of articles on topics of greater concern in midlife (the …

Repetitive Motion Injuries: Urgent Diagnosis, Patient-Centered Management

Urgent message: Musculoskeletal disorders result in costly, disabling outcomes for Americans—causing significant economic impact (work-related injuries, early retirement, days away from work) and representing a leading cause of chronic diseases nationwide. Frequently, the initial treating facility, which determines if the injured/ill patient is capable of returning to work or needs time away from work or modified duty, is an urgent care center. Ashley Clay, MSPAS, PA-C INTRODUCTION An estimated one in two adults older than …

Optimize Revenue with Improved Claims Denials Management

No matter how diligent your billing staff is about billing charges out correctly, it is inevitable that you will receive claim denials from payers, whether they are justified or not. A claim denial means that no payment is being received for the service, and unless you have someone (or technology) analyze the denial to determine if the denial is appropriate or not, you will not receive payment for the service(s) rendered . Denials come in …

Make a ‘Formal’ Commitment to Antibiotic Stewardship

It’s an inescapable, irrefutable fact that too many clinicians are writing too many prescriptions for unwarranted antibiotics in the United States. We all know the consequences, too; around 23,000 Americans die every year from drug-resistant infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Urgent care certainly is not immune to the misguided practice, but as an industry we’re taking strong steps to reverse the trend. The most recent development: The Urgent Care Association, …

An Approach to Cutting Inappropriate Antibiotic Use in Urgent Care

The key to safer, appropriate use of antibiotics may lie in something as simple as better education for both physicians and patients, according to a new study published in Academic Emergency Medicine. Funded by a contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers at UC Davis saw inappropriate prescriptions for antibiotics fall by one third in nine emergency departments and urgent care centers in California and Colorado after introducing one of two educational …