bnapolitano, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Not Getting Good Results from Its Clinics, Walgreens is Closing Stores to Focus on Telehealth

Walgreens is shutting down nearly half of its in-store clinics due to stronger-than-anticipated competition, such as from the still-growing urgent care sector, and will instead start focusing more on telehealth services. The 200 retail locations that will remain open will mostly be those run through healthcare partnerships and focus more on complex and chronic health conditions like asthma, as opposed to immediate care. According to a recent post from mHealth Intelligence, Walgreens’ decision is part …

Urgent Care Looks to Find its Identity through Gen Z and Millennials

Urgent message: Younger consumers’ healthcare preferences are significantly different than that of older consumers. Urgent care providers have a prime opportunity to meet the needs of Gen Z and Millennials by creating a new healthcare experience. Dan Stanek Introduction As everyday healthcare begins to deviate from the classic primary care model, the competition is just beginning in regard to which alternative provider will best suit consumers’ needs. Urgent care may be the current provider type …

A 13-Year-Old Boy with Hip and Groin Pain After a Soccer Game

The patient is a 13-year-old boy who complains of pain in his right hip and groin after playing soccer. His mother says she didn’t see what happened, but reports that she looked up from a magazine she was reading to see him limping suddenly. View the image taken and consider what the diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.

Pediatric Urgent Care—Specialized Medicine on the Front Lines

David Mathison, MD, MBA Thirty years ago, there was widespread concern that specialty medicine was “a problem.” Consumers were self-selecting specialty (vs primary) care for routine ailments, thus driving up the cost of healthcare. Without restrictions, consumers could choose neurologists for headaches, orthopedists for ankle sprains, and dermatologists for acne—all very appropriate with complexity, but unnecessary and costly for routine problems. Hence came the dawn of managed care armed with gatekeepers, referral requirements, and …

Keeping Up with CMS Policies on Medicare Cards and Flu Vaccine Reimbursements

New Medicare Card Transition Period Ends December 31, 2019 As a result of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), in 2018 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began issuing new Medicare cards to all beneficiaries; unlike the previously existing cards, the new cards do not display the beneficiary’s Social Security number. CMS set up a schedule to mail out the new cards based on regions, to be completed by …

Abstracts in Urgent Care-November 2019

An Update on Vaccine the 2019-2020 Flu Season Key points: The CDC recommends annual influenza vaccination for everyone 6 months of age and older, with any licensed influenza vaccine that is appropriate for the recipient’s age and health status (IIV, RIV4, or LAIV4) with no preference expressed for any one vaccine over another. All regular dose vaccines are quadrivalent this year. Fluzone (high-dose trivalent vaccine) may provide more protection to those ages 65 and up, …

The Top 15 Occ Med Key Performance Indicators for Your Urgent Care Center

Max Lebow, MD, MPH, FACEP, FACPM Urgent message: Every medical practice follows certain key performance indicators. Here, we offer 15 that are essential to running a profitable occupational medicine business within an urgent care operation. There are a number of important key performance indicators (KPIs) that every urgent care, or any medical practice, follows—the most important being the bank balance at the end of the month. Most also follow basic practice measures such …

When Pregnant Patients Present to the Urgent Care Center

Urgent message: Care of the pregnant patient in urgent care can be complex, as every test or treatment needs to take into account both the mother and her unborn child. Conditions which would be considered benign and self-limited in healthy patients take on a different level of concern, and must be managed differently, in the pregnant patient. James Hicks, MD INTRODUCTION There appears to be a wide variety of comfort levels within any particular urgent …

An 11-Year-Old Girl with Red, Itchy Rash

Urgent message: Urticaria from cold exposure should be considered to prevent future anaphylaxis and angioedema with re-exposure. KELSEY REED, MSN, APRN, FNP-C CASE PRESENTATION An 11-year-old girl presents to urgent care with complaints of repetitive episodes of sudden onset of itchy red rash with ill-defined borders which has occurred three times in the past 1.5 weeks following exposure to cold water. Twice, the hives occurred after swimming in a pool and once in a local …

A Teenage Girl Who Suddenly Bruises Easily

A 17-year-old girl presents to urgent care complaining of easy bruising, especially on her legs. She couldn’t recall having any injuries, even minor bumps, that might have caused the red and purple ecchymoses that had appeared. She insisted no one else had caused her harm. She also complained of headache and nausea. A high school student, she was about to complete her final exams and was concerned she would have bruises on her legs during …