Practice Management
As much of the country starts warming up to Spring temperatures and people head outside to enjoy nature, you can expect a return of patients concerned that they could have contracted an illness from tick bites. Not just a return, actually, but an increase as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that while incidence of tick-borne illness in general has risen 25% since 2011, the increase is especially acute in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, …
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Community media resources are rife with articles and posts aiming to help readers understand when it makes sense to visit a hospital emergency room vs urgent care vs a retail pharmacy clinic. The Chicago-area Daily Herald just ran one listing complaints appropriate for presentation to various settings, for example. (For the record, their list for urgent care includes allergic reaction, sore throat, ear infection, sprains, animal bites, flu symptoms, minor burns and injuries, and broken …
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We talk about the shortage of healthcare providers in appropriately urgent, though somewhat vague, terms. The fact is that some specialties are having a harder time than others right now, though—one of them being obstetrics and gynecology. According to a report published by Becker’s Hospital Review, 2023 applications for Ob/Gyn residencies are down from 2022. It goes on to note that numerous hospitals in the United States are closing or have already stopped offering obstetrics …
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JUCM News readers may have noticed more items than ever informing you of moves by various retail drugstores and big-box stores to draw business away from urgent care and primary care practices. Most recently, we told you about Walgreens’ and Walmart’s’ latest attempts. If you haven’t been keeping score, an article just published by Becker’s Hospital Review notes that a grand total of 4,233 outlets have opened up—still just a fraction of the number of …
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In case you missed it, urgent care centers and other healthcare employers who have contracts with the federal government are now forbidden from asking prospective employees’ about their criminal history on applications or in the interview process. In fact, you’re not allowed to raise the question before you offer someone the job. The first time you’re allowed to raise the question is when you make a conditional offer of employment—after which you could open yourself …
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Just last week we told you the federal government is allowing COVID-19 emergency declarations to expire without renewal for the first time since they were enacted to help protect the public and healthcare professionals from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The first two—the national emergency declaration and the public health emergency—are set to expire on May 11. Now comes word that states are starting to rescind rules imposed during the pandemic. As reported by Becker’s …
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While access to marijuana and other illicit substances may have been hindered during the social distancing period of the COVID-19 pandemic,  the rate at which teenagers continued to use alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs as of 2021 remained relatively high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report, 2011–2021, a greater proportion of female than male high school students acknowledged smoking marijuana (18% to 14%, …
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Georgia Urgent Care in Milton, VT just restored their capability to offer x-rays and bone-density imaging. A new nurse practitioner is taking the next step in her career by joining the team at Sanford Health in Bemidji, MN. And Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital’s El Dorado Urgent Care center is now going to be seeing patients on the hospital campus. We know this because articles alerting the public to these events appeared in the St. …
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As regular JUCM News readers know, the May 11 expiration of federal, pandemic-related emergency declarations will have broad implications for urgent care (and the healthcare industry in general). One that we haven’t touched on is the impact on telehealth. As COVID-19 limited the ability for patients to visit brick-and-mortar practices, standards on remote prescribing were relaxed so more providers in more widespread locations could prescribe for patients they didn’t examine in person. An opinion piece …
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As we reported recently, Walgreens keeps buying properties to enhance its efforts to capture business in the primary care sector. Now, as reported by Healthcare Dive, Walmart Health says it’s going to open 28 new locations next year, including two in Missouri and Arizona—fresh territory for them. If they follow through, that will bring the total number of WH locations in the country to 75 since launching in 2019. It appears their niche will be …
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