Harris Fleming, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Be Aware: Shorter Visits by Certain Patients Seem to Increase Inappropriate Prescriptions

Efficient time management is one of the signature attributes—and biggest draws—of an urgent care visit. A new study published by JAMA Health Forum could be viewed as a caveat for urgent care providers, however, as it suggests that shorter visits to primary care physicians seem to result in more poor prescribing decisions than longer visits do—at least for certain categories of medications and among patients from certain demographic groups. The cross-sectional study, which reflects the …

Assure, Don’t Assume, You’re on All the Provider Directories You Should Be

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois’s failure to ensure its online provider directories are current should be a wake-up call for urgent care operators everywhere. As reported by Becker’s Hospital Report, the company was just fined $605,000 for violating state network transparency laws; an audit showed the company failed to audit at least 25% of provider directories to ensure they were current and that their website maintained current provider information. The implication for urgent care …

Whether Priced for the Masses or the Elite, Providers Are Giving ‘Memberships’ a Look

A company called Sollis Health swears they “don’t replace your primary care physician,” but is hoping patients won’t mind spending up to $6,000 a year for “membership-based, on-demand, and after-hours access.” An urgent care physician in Atlanta says he’s willing to see patients as many times as they’d like to come in for $100 per month. What the two have in common is a disdain for dealing with health insurance companies and the hope that …

Update: Expiration of COVID Health Emergencies May Be Accelerated (Considerably)

It wasn’t that long ago that we reported various health emergencies declared to help the country cope with the COVID-19 pandemic would be expiring this May. Now the United States Senate has passed a resolution to end the declarations immediately upon President Biden’s signature—which, according to an article published by Becker’s Hospital Review, he’s likely to provide. Different declarations cover different aspects of providing care. For a good overview, check out the summary created by …

The Provider Shortage May Be Both a Curse and a Blessing for Urgent Care

The evolving shortage of primary care providers is a challenge for urgent care operators in the United States, no doubt, but it is also showing to be the catalyst for additional growth within the industry, if the conclusions of a new study from FAIR Health are to be believed. Conversely, the ongoing success of urgent care may also be making it harder for primary care practices to maintain healthy clinical staffing levels. The report notes …

Can You Really Trust Pulse Ox Readings? In Some Patients, Maybe Not

A new study published by JAMA Pediatrics suggests that pulse oximetry may be less reliable in Black patients with hypoxemia than in White patients, possibly resulting in undertreatment of hypoxemia in some patients. The authors based their findings on comparison of arterial blood oxygen saturation (SaO2) and pulse oximetry (SpO2) in 774 patients (74% classified as White and 26% classified as Black) between the 1 and 17 years of age at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. …

Prepare for More Young Patients; Pediatric Hospitals May Be the Next to Cut Back on Services

We reported just last week that a sharp downturn in physicians applying for obstetrics/gynecology residencies may portend a shortage in ob/gyns in hospitals and ultimately force some to reduce services. Now an opinion piece in MedPage Today suggests that children’s hospital consolidations, pediatric mental health crises, and acute surges like the one we saw recently with respiratory syncytial virus may force some institutions to look at reducing pediatric services. If that comes to pass, it’s …

Young Physicians May Be Losing Interest in Emergency Medicine. Is This an Opportunity for UC?

This year has seen record low interest in emergency medicine residency positions, with 555 unmatched positions (compared with 219 in 2022), according to an article published by MedPage Today. It’s not a sudden trend, either; between 2021 and 2022, applications to EM residencies dropped 16.8%. While the American College of Emergency Physicians is reportedly putting together a task force to grasp the reason for the decline (and to figure out a way to reverse it), …

CDC Is Sounding the Alarm Over a ‘New’ Resistant Fungal Infection Sweeping Across the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has deemed Candida auris to be an emerging “urgent antimicrobial resistance (AR) threat” in the United States, owing to an alarming increase in cases—including cases that are resistant to echinocandins and other antifungal drugs. Echinocandin-resistant cases have tripled since 2021. A CDC announcement notes that C auris infection is most likely to occur in healthcare facilities and among patients with invasive medical devices. As such, urgent care providers …

Persistent Chatter About COVID and Ivermectin Doesn’t Jibe with Emerging Data

As more time and experience accumulate since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inevitable claims over therapies purported to be useful come and go, the idea that ivermectin could be curative has persisted on social media, in the blogosphere, and among popular podcasters. New data published by the Journal of the American Medical Association provide further evidence that there is no advantage to employing even high-dose ivermectin for patients with COVID-19, however. Researchers …