Clinical

Every October (or earlier), the call goes up that it’s time for patients to get their annual flu shot. Urgent care providers are inundated with messages from all corners of healthcare, pleading with them to vaccinate as many people as time and patient preference allows. Advances in artificial intelligence could put a stop to that at some point, however. No, it can’t program patients to follow your advice by getting immunized. Rather, as noted in …

Cases of multidrug-resistant Salmonella infections have increased nearly 32% across 26 states and the District of Columbia over the past 6 weeks, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC and public health officials in some affected states have traced the cases back to raw turkey products. Urgent care providers should be vigilant for patients presenting with nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fever, chills, headache, or blood in …

Print issues of JUCM, as well a coverage in JUCM News, have offered insights into the role urgent care can play in improving antibiotic stewardship across the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released data on the potential for devastating consquences: 23,000 Americans die annually from antibiotic-reisstant infections every year. Given the greater frequency with which patients seek an antibiotic prescription in urgent care centers, you are in an ideal position …

The appearance of a tick native to eastern Asia and Korea in the U.S. has alarmed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enough that the agency issued a formal report on it this week. Several factors make the tick newsworthy: The fact that the Asian longhorned tick has been found in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, Arkansas and West Virginia indicates that global travel and climate change are likely to bring …

The odds are that the most outrageous concerns patients present with can be easily explained away, and often to the patient’s satisfaction (and relief). That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look into them, though. Take the tale of a Gila Lyons, a writer who happens to have (and who has written extensively about) anxiety and panic disorders. For some time she experienced ringing in her ears, accompanied by a “prickly tickle” as she described it in …

Women who have been victims of domestic violence or abuse are more than twice as likely to ask for emergency contraception in a visit to a healthcare provider, according to a new study published in the British Journal of General Practice. The authors say their results are in line with similar research conducted in other countries. While this latest study focused on primary care providers, pharmacists, and sexual health practitioners in the U.K., it stands …

Despite your best efforts—and those of your colleagues, employers, and the entire U.S. healthcare system—and the highest flu-related death toll in decades last year, many adults have no intention of getting a flu shot this year, according to data just released by NORC (formerly known as the National Opinion Research Center) at the University of Chicago. Nearly 41% of adults surveyed hadn’t been immunized as of mid-November and said they weren’t planning to this year. …

Healthcare providers who took an online CME program specific to seasonal influenza in children, and that took into account flu shot hesitancy in parents, were more likely to vaccinate infants against the flu, according to a study out of Western University in Canada. Authors of the paper, which was presented at IDWeek recently, concluded that the results show a distinct cause-and-effect relationship between providing timely clinical education and clinical action by participants. “Timely” may be …

If current data hold true in the years to come, antimicrobial-resistant infection is expected to kill 1 million Americans and cost developed countries $3.5 billion per year by the year 2050. Conversely, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), 75% of deaths could be averted by investing $2 per person per year in measures to stem resistance. That model presumes that the current growth rate of antibiotic resistance …

Addiction may not be the only risk for patients who take opioid pain medications—even if they follow prescribing directions to the letter. A paper presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions reveals increased risk for atrial fibrillation in patients who take opioids. Accounting for comorbidities, demographics, and mental health conditions, patients who took opioids were found to be 34% more likely to develop AFib than those who did not take opioids. The data are …