Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus: An Urgent Care Approach

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus: An Urgent Care Approach

Charis Royal, BS Urgent message: With recent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, being able to quickly and accurately diagnose such diseases is paramount for initiating containment and treatment procedures in a timely manner. Introduction In 2012 a novel coronavirus was discovered in the Arabian Peninsula, with signs and symptoms similar to those of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). This coronavirus was named Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and has infected over …

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Delayed Prescribing of Antibiotics for Respiratory Tract Infections

Delayed Prescribing of Antibiotics for Respiratory Tract Infections

Urgent message: Respiratory tract infections are a common complaint in the urgent care setting. Many patients present with the expectation of receiving antibiotics because they have usually done so. The rise of anti biotic-resistant infections requires that we take a close look at our prescribing habits and the need to reeducate patients on the harm of overusing antibiotics. Delayed prescribing offers a way to both satisfy patients and reduce the use of antibiotics in respiratory …

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Abstracts in Urgent Care: September, 2015

SEAN M. McNEELEY, MD Adverse Events Unlikely in Patients with Negative Findings on Cardiac Evaluation Key point: Adverse events in patients admitted with negative findings on cardiac evaluation are very infrequent. Citation: Weinstock MB, Weingart S, Orth F, et al. Risk for clinically relevant adverse cardiac events in patients with chest pain at hospital admission. JAMA Intern Med 2015;175:1207–1212. In this 5-year retrospective study of patients seen in an emergency department for symptoms potentially representing …

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EHR Interoperability: A Bridge to Nowhere

Lee A. Resnick, MD, FAAFP In the beginning, interoperability and health information exchange (HIE) were key selling points for physicians considering adoption of and investment in electronic health records (EHRs), but today most are left feeling misled, stranded on a bridge that leads nowhere. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMMS) defines EHR interoperability as “the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that …

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Top Procedures Performed at U.S. Urgent Care Centers in 2014

Data from the 2014 Urgent Care Chart Survey of 1,778,075 blinded visits by patients to more than 800 different urgent care clinics, conducted by the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, reveal that the top 3 procedures performed at U.S. urgent care centers in 2014 were as follows, in descending order: • Medication administration (vaccine, IV, steroid injection, anesthesia)—59.7 million procedures (39.8% of visits) • Rapid diagnostic tests and cultures—44 million procedures (29.4% of visits) • …

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Soft-Tissue Infection Due to Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Aeromonas hydrophila

Soft-Tissue Infection Due to Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Aeromonas hydrophila

Urgent message: Failure to recognize and treat the early development of skin and soft-tissue infection from a stingray envenomation may result in significant tissue necrosis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome. WILLIAM A. WOOLERY, DO, PhD, MS, MBA, FACOFP Stingray injuries to humans are very common but rarely fatal. Approximately 2000 cases are reported annually in the United States.1–3 At my rural hospital on the west coast of Florida, we see an average of 45 such …

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