Abstracts in Urgent Care – April 2025

Abstracts in Urgent Care – April 2025

Evaluating Interventions for Improving Antibiotic Stewardship in Urgent Care Take Home Point: An antibiotic stewardship intervention was associated with reduced rates of antibiotic prescribing for patients with bronchitis, but not viral upper respiratory infections (URI). Citation: Park D, Roberts A, Hamdy R, et. al. Evaluating an urgent care antibiotic stewardship intervention: a multi-network collaborative effort. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2025; Jan 8:1-6. doi: 10.1017/ice.2024.213 Relevance: Antibiotic prescribing for conditions not caused by bacterial infection remains …

Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care – March 2025

Abstracts in Urgent Care – March 2025

Developing Procedural Mastery With Slit Lamp Use Take Home Point: Simulation-based mastery learning (SBML) intervention improved emergency physicians’ confidence in performing and teaching slit lamp exams (SLE) to other clinicians, but this confidence waned after completing the training. Citation: Hamou S, Ghiaee S, Chung C, et. al. Emergency Department Slit Lamp Interdisciplinary Training Via Longitudinal Assessment in Medical Practice.  West J Emerg Med. 2024;25(5):725-734. doi: 10.5811/westjem.18514 Relevance: Procedural comfort and competence for a wide variety …

Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care – February 2025

Abstracts in Urgent Care – February 2025

Concussion Recovery in Young Children   Take Home Point: This study suggests that children aged 5-12 years old with concussion have similar trajectories of recovery regardless of mechanism of injury. Citation: Ledoux A, Sicard V, Bijelic V, et. all. Symptom Recovery in Children Aged 5 to 12 Years With Sport-Related and Non–Sport-Related Concussion. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Dec 2;7(12): e2448797. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.48797. Relevance: More knowledge about the natural history of concussion in children can help …

Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care – January 2025

Abstracts in Urgent Care – January 2025

Hematoma Blocks Effective for Closed Forearm Reduction Take Home Point: Hematoma blocks are an effective method of achieving analgesia to facilitate closed reduction of forearm fractures. Citation: Pitman G, Soeyland T, Popovic G, et al. Hematoma block is the most efficient technique for closed forearm fracture reduction: a retrospective cohort study. Emerg Med J. 2024; 41:595–601 Relevance: Adequate closed reduction of wrist and forearm fractures acutely after injury is important to reduce risk of complications …

Read More
Systematic Rapid Review: Efficacy of Hematoma Blocks for Pediatric Forearm Fractures

Systematic Rapid Review: Efficacy of Hematoma Blocks for Pediatric Forearm Fractures

Shomel Gauznabi, MBChB, FRNZCGP, FRACGP, FRNZCUC, MD; Ivan Koay, MBChB, MRCS, FRNZCUC, MD Urgent Message: There is literature supporting that regional anesthesia, specifically hematoma blocks, is a safe, effective, and well tolerated alternative to procedural sedation for the management of pediatric forearm fractures. Citation: Gauznabi S, Koay I. Systematic Rapid Review: Efficacy of Hematoma Blocks for Pediatric Forearm Fractures. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 19(x):42-50 Key Words: pediatric forearm fractures, anesthesia, hematoma blocks, urgent care …

Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care – November 2024

Abstracts in Urgent Care – November 2024

Sophistication of ECG for Detection of Acute Coronary Syndromes Take Home Point: Cardiac electrical biomarker (CEB), a finding detectable on ECG, may hold potential for identifying patients with acute myocardial ischemia; this may have significant implications for urgent care (UC) based chest pain risk stratification. Citation: Chattopadhyay S, Adjei F, Kardos A. Changes in Cardiac Electrical Biomarker in Response to Coronary Arterial Occlusion: An Experimental Observation. J Cardiovasc Transl Res. 2024 Aug;17(4):870-878. doi: 10.1007/s12265-024-10487-w. Relevance: …

Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care – October 2024

Abstracts in Urgent Care – October 2024

Public Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence Use in Healthcare Take Home Point: Patient and healthcare workers surveyed were generally accepting of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine. Respondents did express some concern about the potential impact of AI on the accuracy of medical decision-making, however. Citation: Thornton N, Binesmael A, Horton T, et al. AI in health care: what do the public and NHS staff think? The Health Foundation. Published July 31, 2024. Accessed …

Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care – September 2024

Abstracts in Urgent Care – September 2024

Can Large Language Models Help in Assessing Acuity of Patients Presenting to ED? Take Home Point: Integration of large language models (LLMs) in the emergency department (ED) could enhance triage processes. This warrants further investigation particularly in the urgent care (UC) space. Citation: Williams C, Zack T, Miao B, et. al. Use of a Large Language Model to Assess Clinical Acuity of Adults in the Emergency Department. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 May 1;7(5): e248895. doi: …

Read More
Abstracts in Urgent Care – July/August 2024

Abstracts in Urgent Care – July/August 2024

Use of NEXUS II Clinical Decision Tool for Blunt Head Injuries in Elderly Patients Take Home Point: Older patients with blunt head-injury are at high risk of sustaining serious intracranial injuries even with low-risk mechanisms of injury, such as ground-level falls. Citation: Mower W, Akie T, Morizadeh N, et. al. Blunt Head Injury in the Elderly: Analysis of the NEXUS II Injury Cohort. Ann Emerg Med. 2024 May;83(5):457-466. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2024.01.003 Relevance: Older adults are known …

Read More
How Changes in Team Composition Affect Performance: What Urgent Care Can Learn from the Sports World

How Changes in Team Composition Affect Performance: What Urgent Care Can Learn from the Sports World

Ivan Koay MBChB, MRCS, FRNZCUC, MD Optimal team dynamics play a key role in productivity and enterprise success. The importance of a well-functioning team is evident every day in urgent care centers (UCCs). Increasingly, rapid turnover of UC staff is becoming normative, and changes in team composition can have significant impact on how well a team functions. Whether from daily shift changes or staff joining or leaving the organization, such changes require adaptations both for …

Read More