Practice Management
Just the other day we shared data indicating that healthcare professionals are far less inclined to get a flu shot if their workplace doesn’t require it or offer the immunizations on site. Now comes word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the whole country’s influenza vaccination rate has plateaued—leaving us all at higher risk for an outbreak. New figures from the CDC reveal that since the 2013-2014 season, the rate for adults …
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A New Mexico physician assistant was arrested recently on charges he sexually abused a child repeatedly—years after being granted probation after being charged with enticement of a minor in Utah. He was denied a license in Utah for that reason in 2009, but was granted a PA license in New Mexico less than a year later. PAs are certified nationally, but licensed at the state level. JUCM published an original article on this very topic …
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Despite longstanding advice that people over the age of 6 months should be vaccinated against influenza, more than half of healthcare professionals (HCPs) opt out unless they’re required to get a shot by their employers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 75% of HCPs got a flu shot in preparation for the 2016-2017 flu season—but in clinics and other settings where vaccination was not “required, promoted, or offered on site,” …
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Urgent care operators who offer occupational medicine services should be aware that new guidelines for federal workplaces include mandatory screening for four relatively common opioid pain medications. As of October 1, employee drug tests must include screens for oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, and hydromorphone. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) says this will mainly affect some 400,000 federal employees with public health, public safety, and national security responsibilities. Positive results that are not …
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In this issue of JUCM, we inaugurate a new focus on treating children in the urgent care center. This will manifest in the form of semiregular articles by clinicians who’ve made the commitment to focus on pediatric urgent care. The first, Approach to the Child with Chest Pain, appears on page XX. We are not alone in recognizing that urgent care is ideally suited to the treatment of children whose presenting symptoms don’t warrant a …
Read MoreQ: What can we bill for when we give a patient a nebulizer treatment for an acute airway obstruction during an exacerbation of asthma, or wheezing due to an upper respiratory ailment? A: You can bill for the service and the medication. However, depending on the payer rules, the medication might be bundled into the service. Time is a factor when billing the service. If the treatment is less than 1 hour, you would bill …
Read MoreAlan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent Message: As urgent care expands into traditional retail space, it’s important to understand the obligations of leases that require tenants to act as property “owners” responsible for all taxes, utilities, and maintenance of the real estate. While the defining characteristic of urgent care facilities across the country …
Read MoreValidating a Quantitative EEG-Based Brain Function Index Key point: A novel EEG-based point of care, handheld, and noninvasive head injury assessment device, utilizing an index based on EEG measures reflective of concussion, was demonstrated to provide a quantitative index of brain function impairment in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Citation: Hanley D, Prichep LS, Badjatia N, et al. A brain electrical activity (EEG) based biomarker of functional impairment in traumatic head injury: a multisite validation …
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Urgent message: Acute aortic obstruction should be suspected in all patients with back pain and a history of peripheral vascular disease and atrial fibrillation, as over 50% of these cases are misdiagnosed, resulting in high mortality rates in affected patients. Kristopher Palmer, DO and JM Alderson, DO Introduction Aortic occlusion is a rare but potentially fatal vascular phenomenon that must be considered in all patients with peripheral vascular disease (PVD) complaining of severe pain. Here, …
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