Clinical

The potentially lifesaving necessity of maintaining proper hand hygiene was drilled into us ad nauseum over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like all good things, however, overdoing it carries its own hazards. According to new guidance published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, excessive handwashing and even the length of a worker’s fingernails can increase risk for infection in that individual and those they come in contact with. Providers and other patient-facing team members, …

There’s a movement afoot in urgent care for providers to practice to the upper limits of their clinical expertise—in other words, to not “degrade” the acuity of care by referring or transferring patients out of convenience or expediency when they really could be treated in the urgent care setting. Even the often-ominous chest pain should be considered a “maybe” rather than an automatic referral, based on the findings of a study conducted in Australia and …

While new cases of COVID-19 continue to occur in every part of the United States, infection and mortality rates have fallen far enough for the pandemic to be considered “over” by most public health standards. That doesn’t mean patients and providers should view SARS-CoV-2 as a minor inconvenience, however. According to an article published online by Patient Care, some 36 million Americans have or have had long COVID (for purposes of that article, anyone who …

One of the key messages during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic was that an individual’s level of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 had a strong influence on their risk for infection. And while that’s undoubtedly true to some extent—how can you contract a disease you’re not exposed to?—new data suggest that’s an overly simplistic notion.  A study published by JAMA Internal Medicine reveals that one of the most-exposed groups in the United States also experienced lower …

The U.S. healthcare system has been criticized for being a bit too willing to prescribe antibiotics, often for patients who are suffering through viral, not bacterial, infections, thereby fueling increases in antimicrobial resistance. To its credit, the urgent care industry has rallied together to make antibiotic stewardship a priority. That commitment needs to be continued and amplified to fight what the World Health Organization calls “high levels” of antimicrobial resistance around the globe, however, as …

As we reported previously, an outbreak of measles in Ohio and Minnesota has sparked concerns that other states in the region and beyond could be vulnerable to a similar uptick in cases. While that fear has proven unfounded so far, the number of cases in Ohio has continued to climb over the past couple of months. As reported by The Hill, 85 cases have been confirmed, with hospitalization needed for 34 of those patients. The …

The seemingly endless, start-and-stop recovery from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and fluctuating reports of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus rates can suck up a lot of attention in mainstream and medical media—so much so that efforts to prevent other infectious diseases can slide under the radar. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has continued to do its work as usual. ACIP adopted the following standards at …

Tamiflu is the latest medication to be reported in short supply where levels of influenza continue to be high across the United States, according to new information from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. ASHP says 21 oseltamivir presentations are in short supply, with most of the eight manufacturers involved reporting no resupply date. The report notes that some pharmacists have started compounding some medications in response. JUCM News has reported previously on the ongoing …

Older patients are presenting to emergency rooms with complaints related to marijuana use in greater numbers than ever before, according to research just published by the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Based on a trend analysis of California Department of Healthcare Access and Information records, the researchers reported that the rate of cannabis-related visits by patients 65 years of age and older increased from 20.7 per 100,000 visits to 395 visits/100,000 between 2005 and …

Just a few weeks after we told you hospitals across the country were seeing far more cases of severe Streptococcus A infection than in a typical year, mainstream media outlets are again sounding the alarm that the tripledemic should not be the only concern for healthcare providers and families. According to a report from WWMT in Grand Rapids, MI, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, for one, has seen four cases of severe infection linked to group …