Clinical

Americans who receive primary care get significantly more high-value care, with better healthcare access and overall experience, than patients without primary care, according to a new study publised online by the Journal of the American Medical Association. For purposes of the study, primary care was defined as the provider “you usually go if you are sick or need advice about your health,” not including the emergency room. The researchers considered 39 clinical quality measures and …

Some 10% of patients will tell you they’re allergic to penicillin if the subject comes up, so you’d better give them something else if that’s what’s indicated for their diagnosis. The problem is, even those who believe what they’re saying are likely to be mistaken. As noted in an article just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, less than 5% of the U.S. population actually has an allergy to penicillin. In this …

Much of the northeast corner of the U.S. is expected to plunge into a deep freeze this week, raising the likelihood that your urgent care centers will be seeing cold weather-related injuries. Some can be relatively minor, such as acute back pain in the wake of heavy snow shoveling, but that same activity could spark chest pain, especially in older patients. Then there’s frostbite, hypothermia, and orthopedic presentations related to slipping on slick surfaces outside. …

Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School say inappropriate use of antibiotics is “still rampant,” with only 12.8% of antibiotic prescriptions in their study being given appropriately. Further, their data show a relatively low 6.7% of those prescriptions originated in urgent care centers, far less than suggested in a JAMA Internal Medicine piece published last October. This latest study, published in The BMJ, reflects insurance claims and shows that antibiotics were most commonly overprescribed …

When we consider ways in which disease is passed from one person to another, we probably think first about the home, classrooms, offices, or modes of transportation. However, your workplace—the urgent care center—may also be the source sometimes. And the danger isn’t limited to the waiting room. A new study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology notes that stethoscopes can transfer germs from one patient to the next, and suggests that a standardized approach …

Public health officials in numerous states, most notably California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are reporting significant flu activity—some exceeding even last year’s severe flu season. California has seen a relatively high number of deaths (42) for this point in the season. Roughly half of those have Top of Formoccurred in the elderly. Flu has been called “widespread” in New Jersey, to the extent that some hospitals there are imposing restrictions on people visiting hospitals. AtlantiCare …

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine are enlisting clinicians, patients, caregivers, and schools to help evaluate Emory’s own TBI Evaluation and Management (TEaM) Toolkit, with the intention of rolling it out to health systems ultimately. The toolkit was devised to boost recovery in children with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The aim of the Emory study will be to show that validated “clinical practice and education for patients, caregivers, clinical providers and schools is …

Urgent care providers wrestle with decisions about antibiotic prescribing every day. It’s not made any easier by patients who plead for a script, either. Some guidance, or at least validation, might be drawn from a new Viewpoint piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, however. It analyzes concepts put forth by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, identifying four “moments” in which clinicians should ask themselves certain questions about each patient’s …

Cases of vaccine-preventable diseases continue to pile up across the country, with Oregon and Washington being the latest states to report outbreaks of measles. One of the affected children in Washington, whose immunization status was unknown, was diagnosed at an urgent care center in Vancouver in late December. Public health officials in both states are publicizing locations where patients with measles visited in order to encourage people they may have come in contact with to …

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 …