Practice Management
With the Omicron variant now the most common form of COVID-19 in the United States—and with the best way to reduce risk being fully vaccinated and boosted against the virus, as JUCM News has reported—urgent care centers can expect to see more patients seeking that third shot (if they’re not turning up already). That’s only one reason you’re likely to see volumes rise, however, as the Omicron virus has many symptomatic and nonsymptomatic people panicking …
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Just 3 weeks after the first Omicron-related diagnosis of COVID-19 in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that this latest variant of the virus has become the dominant one in this country, accounting for 73% of new cases here as of this writing. Bear in mind that’s the national figure; Omicron is even more dominant in New York, New Jersey, and parts of the Midwest, South, and Pacific Northwest. The …
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With increasing spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, some states have already upgraded their pandemic status (New Jersey, for example, just went from yellow [moderate] to orange [high]). That doesn’t bode well for the future, given predictions from the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that the entire country will see a dramatic jump in new cases over the next 4 weeks. A ripple effect that began with travel and gatherings over Thanksgiving weekend is …
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While attempts to offer behavioral health services in an urgent care setting (or even using an urgent care approach) have failed to gain traction, that doesn’t mean the idea lacks merit. And with emergency rooms struggling with the dual burden of COVID-19 and staffing shortages, whatever community resources are available to decrease the need for people in a mental health crisis to head to the ED could be impactful. That’s exactly what’s happening in the …
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Multiple tools to detect pulmonary embolism are at the urgent care provider’s disposal. And yet, misses happen. The Journal of the American Medical Association just published an article on research that tested an alternate method to detect PE, combining the YEARS rule with age-adjusted D-dimer threshold—and the authors concluded that this method “did not lead to an inferior rate of thromboembolic events compared with a conventional diagnostic strategy.” The cluster-randomized crossover noninferiority study focused on …
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With the blessing of the Centers for Disease Control of Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, urgent care providers are now at liberty to administer booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine for patients as young as 16 years of age. The CDC made its recommendation the same day the FDA announced that it had expanded its Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to include 16- and 17-year-olds. As with adults, those boosters can be …
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As JUCM News has reported, rates of influenza are increasing across the United States and across age groups at a very precarious time, with rates of COVID-19 also on the rise. The passage of another week brings more of the same, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as regional and national media, are reporting that the climb continues but also sharing insights as to what’s fueling it. One of key culprits …
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New data out of the United Kingdom confirm what has been presumed (and been concerning): The two-dose regimen of vaccination against COVID-19 is insufficient to protect against the Omicron variant. This isn’t surprising, given the fact that so many people are vaccinated but cases are climbing around the world, including in the United States. However, the University of Oxford researchers did not find evidence that infection with Omicron led to increased risk for severe disease, …
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Recognizing that urgent care centers provide excellent, cost-effective care efficiently and safely (and that this flu season could be especially perilous), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is recommending that vets who participate in the VA health system visit their local UC center to get a no-cost flu shot. Urgent care operators can ensure they’re on the radar by taking the following steps, outlined by the VA: Determine which Community Care Network (CCN) region you …
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The success of vaccinations against much older viruses has been part of the rallying cry for people trying to convince others that it is not only wise, but the responsible thing to do to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Unfortunately, we collectively seem to have forgotten that we can’t afford to let vigilance lapse once we think we’ve tamed a virus. We could be at a precarious point with measles right now, for example. The past …
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