Evaluation of Nonfatal Drowning in Urgent Care
Urgent message: Lingering warm weather and postpandemic euphoria continue to have patients eager to pursue outdoor activities, including swimming in pools, freshwater lakes, and oceans. Those who have suffered a drowning episode and whose symptoms have resolved may seek care or reassurance at the local urgent care center. Citation: Davidoff TQ. Evaluation of nonfatal drowning in urgent care. J Urgent Care Med. 2021;15(11):11-14. Case Presentation A 4-year-old Hispanic male without significant past medical history is …
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Best Practices for LGBTQ-Friendly Urgent Care
Urgent message: LGBTQ individuals are subject to implicit and explicit bias in our society, ranging from microaggressions and antagonistic legislation to overt discrimination and harassment. This can inhibit willingness to seek medical care—and, subsequently, lead to worse health outcomes. Given the more accessible, episodic nature of urgent care, understanding how word choice and other subtle cues communicate our competency in working with LGBTQ patients can help us engender trust more quickly. INTRODUCTION The goals for …
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Epistaxis: A Clinical Review
Urgent message: Epistaxis is a common chief complaint representing a wide spectrum of severity. Key features such as the vital signs, location of the bleeding, and patient history, as well as practice and facility with certain procedures, can assist significantly with patient outcomes and dispositions. Lindsay Ballard, MD; Stephanie Fernandez, MD; and Joshua Kornegay, MD Citation: Ballard L, Fernandez S, Kornegay J. Epistaxis: a clinical review. J Urgent Care Med. 2021;15(10):13-18. Introduction Epistaxis is a …
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Outpatient Management of COVID-19 in the Urgent Care Clinic: Administering Monoclonal Antibodies
Urgent message: The approved use of monoclonal antibodies to treat patients who have COVID-19 may signal a shift from inpatient to outpatient care of infected individuals who do not require hospitalization. Urgent care facilities may be ideally suited to serve as treatment centers and to become destinations of choice for such patients. Lindsey Fish, MD Now that COVID-19 has been with us for over a year, we are in a much different position regarding the …
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Pretravel Consultations in the Urgent Care Setting
Urgent message: A pretravel consultation assesses the patient’s fitness for travel in the context of anticipated risks associated with their journey. This individualized counseling takes into account not just age or destination, but also general health and other factors such as past travel experience. Given the proliferation of single-specialty travel medicine clinics, with appropriate training and preparation, these assessments can easily be performed in the urgent care setting. Benjamin Silverberg, MD, MSc, FAAFP, FCUCM Citation: …
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Managing Concussions in Acute Care
Jordan Wackett MD, MPH, Joshua Kornegay, MD, Craig Rudy, MD The most recent recommendation from the Concussion in Sport Group calls for 24-48 hours of rest and a graded return to activity (unrestricted once asymptomatic)2. Unfortunately, asymptomatic from a concussion standpoint is not always obvious, which can make the new recommendation difficult to implement as patients may remain symptomatic while adhering to rest. Symptomatology is often multifactorial and they may be instructed to rest despite …
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Building the Body Up Just to Break the Body Down: A Look Into Black Market Substance Use Among Young Athletes and Bodybuilders
Urgent message: Many performance-enhancing medications not currently approved by the FDA remain undetectable in basic urine specimens collected in the urgent care setting. If there is suspicion of any form of illicit substance use, the inquiry of specific supplements/agents is key, as side effect profiles are often vast and wide. Rachael M. Poff, PA-C and Christina E. Gardner, DHSc, MBA, PA-C INTRODUCTION Selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) constitute a class of medication that has become …
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Practice Review: Patients Presenting with Symptoms of Odontogenic Infection
Urgent message: Odontogenic infections can pose life-threatening risk when swelling occurs in close proximity to the airway. It is essential that the urgent care provider is able to differentiate cases of relatively straightforward infection that can be managed in the urgent care setting vs true airway emergencies. Amandeep Kaur Bains, BDS(Hons) MFDS RCPS (Glasg); Awais Safdar Ali, BDS MJDF RCSEng; and Pavan Padaki, BDS, MFDS RCPS (Glasg), MBChB, MRCS, FRCS (OMFS) INTRODUCTION While odontogenic or …
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If Not Otitis Externa…Then What?
Urgent message: Complaints of ear pain in children are among the most common presentations in the urgent care setting. While acute otitis media and acute otitis externa are high on the list of possible causes, it is essential that the urgent care provider be prepared to differentiate these from other possible etiologies. Elizabeth Flasch, MSN, APNP, PNP; Sadia Ansari, MD; Timothy Martin, MD Citation: Flasch E, Ansari S, Martin T. If not otitis externa…then what? …
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