StuWilli, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Clinical Challenge: May, 2010

In each issue, JUCM will challenge your diagnostic acumen with a glimpse of x-rays, electrocardiograms, and photographs of dermatologic conditions that real urgent care patients have presented with. If you would like to submit a case for consideration, please e-mail the relevant materials and presenting information to [email protected]. The patient is a 50-year-old female who presents with pain in her right thumb after taking a fall. On examination, you not local swelling at the base …

Here Comes the Sunburn: An Update

Urgent message: The advent of warmer weather is a reminder that many otherwise sensible Americans fail to heed warnings to use adequate protection from the sun. The urgent care clinician can expect to see more patients presenting with varying degrees of sunburn. Deepthi Samindla, MBBS, Beth Braig, BA, Mikayla L. Spangler, PharmD, Shailendra K. Saxena, MD, PhD Introduction Sunburn is an acute cutaneous inflammation to excessive exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. About 30% to …

Ear, Nose, and Throat Urgencies in Children

Urgent message: Many infections and injuries of the ear, nose, or throat are unique to the pediatric population. parents view many of these processes as urgent, leading them to seek immediate medical attention. Ann Mary Bacevice, MD Introduction Children tend to be especially susceptible to a wide range of infectious illnesses, as well as vulnerable to a host of minor traumas to or affecting the ear, nose, or throat. This, added to the fact that …

Hospital-owned Urgent Care Networks: Coming Soon to a Community Near You

“The whitecoats are coming, the whitecoats are coming!” if Paul Revere were running an independent urgent care network, this would be his call to arms. After years of denial and arrogance, health systems are finally waking up to the system integration benefits of urgent care. Hospitals stumbled in their response, hampered by bureaucracies, turf wars, and stifling status quo. Well, the fog was finally lifted and urgent care is on the radar. Due, in large …

Developing Data: May, 2010

In early 2008, UCA revamped its annual survey in conjunction with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University with the goal of assuring that the UCA Benchmarking Committee’s efforts produced a scientifically valid report. Here, we present some of the data from this landmark survey. In this issue: How common is it for urgent care centers to process lab tests onsite – and what tests are they, typically? The question regarding lab tests was …

Exceptional Relationships Lead to Exceptional Sales

Writing Off Patient Responsibility, Modifier-51, and More on New vs. Established E/M Codes

DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q. I listened to your UCA coding webinar, and it raised a question. You mentioned that if we bill insurance for a 99051 and the payor denies payment as “patient responsibility,” then we should bill the patient and not write it off. Does that hold true to the S9088, as well? I often see this code either denied or applied to the patient’s coinsurance/deductible. Question submitted by Megan Fontenot, Integrity …

A Slip of the Lip Can Sink a Practice

When I was 11, attending Our Lady of the Wayside, I was on the wrong side of this exchange during a Marriage and the Catholic Family class, taught by a “largess nun” named Sister Marie Magdalena, whom the entire seventh grade called “MooMoo.” MooMoo: “Sexual relations are a very beautiful thing and can only occur between a husband and a wife.” JS after being called upon: “How would you know how beautiful it is?” Now, …

The Case for Relationship based Clerical Care

Urgent message: Embedding a clerical component within a relationship-based care approach has been shown to improve both financial outcomes and patient satisfaction. Noel Clinton, BS Introduction When we hear the term “relationship-based care,” we tend to think first about the relationship between the clinical staff and the patient. However, a prospective program as Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, NY has shown that positive patient care and improved financial outcomes are also a result of developing a …

Abstracts in Urgent Care: May, 2010

Emergency treatment of Anaphylactic Reactions Key point: Early treatment with intramuscular adrenaline is the treatment of choice for patients having an anaphylactic reaction. Citation: Pumphrey R, Cant A, Clarke S, et al. Emergency treatment of anaphylactic reactions – Guidelines for healthcare providers. Resuscitation. 2008; 77(2): 157-169. Patients experiencing an anaphylactic reaction have life-threatening airway and/or breathing and/or circulation problems usually associated with skin or mucosal changes. Such patients should be treated using the ABCDE …