Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Colorado Is Paying Freestanding EDs to Shut Down. Is This a Sign of Things to Come?

Freestanding emergency rooms have been the bane of many urgent care operator’s existence—and a source of outrage for patients who wind up getting stuck with a hefty and unexpected bill after seeking care at such facilities. Legislative bodies in multiple states have taken steps to prevent freestanding ED operators from hitting patients with surprise bills while trying to mandate price transparency, but Colorado has done them one step better. The state is incentivizing administrators to …

Trust in the COVID-19 Vaccines Is Growing—Take Advantage for the Sake of Your Patients and Your Business

As we’ve told you, the public’s enthusiasm for the COVID-19 vaccines was surprisingly muted once the initial excitement over their availability wore off. Doubt over their safety, especially regarding possible long-term effects, has kept too many people from getting the shot even though it’s the one definitive act that could help bring the pandemic to a close. An article just published by the Journal of the American Medical Association brings good news, however; as more …

Lyme Disease May Be the Least of Our Concerns as Tick Season Approaches

Every time this year, public health departments in areas where ticks flourish seasonally sound the alarm for residents to check themselves, their children, and their pets for ticks. Often, especially on the East Coast, concern centers on Lyme disease. According to an article published in The Washington Post, however, a seldom-discussed tick-borne illness called babesiosis that carries a death rate of up to 20% in immunocompromised patients could be of greater concern. The piece recounts …

Employers—Including Urgent Care Operators—Have Tough Choices Ahead Post Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic forced every institution we take for granted to discover new ways of doing things that would not only be safe, but also allow operations to proceed as “normally” as possible. Besides trying to keep the workforce safe, childcare became a serious issue as kids learned from their bedrooms instead of in their schoolrooms for months (or longer). Some industries found this easier than others; accountants might be able to thrive from a …

Is It Time for Urgent Care to Consider Offering More Behavioral Health Services?

The COVID-19 pandemic has put us all to a test. Urgent care operators have had to be creative in finding new approaches to offering care while keeping workers safe, and ensuring that patients have felt as comfortable as possible visiting when they need same-day medical attention. There’s a secondary price to pay for all that vigilance, though: The stress and fear that accompanied the pandemic have taken a toll on our collective mental and emotional …

Recent Cyberattacks Should Be a Reminder: Prevention Is Far Less Costly Than Regret

When Scripps Health was hit by a cyberattack a few weeks ago, it sent workers scrambling to ascertain the security of sensitive patient health information, company files, and other protected or proprietary data. It’s also likely that the event shook the company’s sense of its own security, probably leaving some with a PTSD-like sense of dread. Needless to say, it also disrupted care at the hospitals and urgent care centers affected. While Scripps has been …

As COVID-19 Limitations Relax, Urgent Care Looks at Returning to Pre-Pandemic Norms

Mask mandates, capacity limits, and social distancing suggestions are starting to fall by the wayside across the country, leading urgent care operators to reconsider operational changes they may have instituted at the height of the pandemic. As JUCM News readers know, many urgent care centers diverted patients to alternate locations so resources could be dedicated to COVID-19 testing or other related activities. Now, however, Western Sierra Medical Clinic in California, Fayetville Urgent Care in Arkansas, …

Febrile Seizure: An Urgent Care Overview

Urgent message: While alarming to parents, febrile seizures in children typically are benign and self-limited. However, the possibility of a life-threatening etiology mandates that the urgent care provider determine the type of seizure and employ appropriate assessments based on factors specific to each case. Tiffany Addington, MD CASE A previously healthy 3-year-old boy presented to urgent care after having a seizure at home. He had a fever that morning and was given ibuprofen. His mother …

Mask Mandates Are Going Away—but Don’t Sound the All-Clear Just Yet

Amid the good news that the COVID-19 vaccines currently being administered in the U.S. cover known variants and that social distancing and mask mandates are being phased out, there’s potentially grim news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the problem is so rare that it’s unlikely to dissuade health officials and legislators, there were at least 10,262 confirmed breakthrough cases of COVID-19 between January 1 and April 30 of this year according …

Urgent Care ‘Physician Assistants’ Today, ‘Physician Associates’ Tomorrow?

In the eyes of many, physician assistants and nurse practitioners (known collectively as advanced practice providers, or APPs) have become indispensable members of the urgent care clinical team. Given that they work under a lower pay scale than physicians, it’s possible for an urgent care operator to hire more APPs than physicians, thereby increasing the productivity of the practice without a corresponding jump in payroll—and reserving more of the physician’s time for the highest-acuity patients. …