Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Pregnant Women Pose Special Challenges—and Carry Certain Risks—in the Pandemic

Recently, we told you about new research showing that many children who’ve been infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic, calling into question the value of school-based screening for common symptoms like fever and cough. Possibly more concerning for urgent care operators and staffs, who by now have also instituted screening procedures for all patients, is new data showing that more than half of pregnant women with COVID-19 may also be asymptomatic. A new study of pregnant …

Walmart Tries Again to Draw Patients Away from Other Retailers—and from Urgent Care

JUCM readers are well aware that Walmart has failed—multiple times—to establish a foothold as a healthcare provider. The concept, market, or locales have just never lined up right. They’re trying again, though, this time in partnership with primary care company Oak Street Health. The pair plan to open clinics in three Walmart supercenters in the Dallas–Fort Worth area this fall with an emphasis on preventive primary care and urgent care. What could make this effort …

Be Aware: Patients Will Be Confused as CDC Waffles on How COVID-19 Is Spread

Several times over the past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has proclaimed new information on how the coronavirus spreads. First they announced new evidence that the virus spreads mainly through the air via respiratory aerosols and droplets, not just through direct propulsion of exhaled droplets as previously stated. Aerosol experts cheered. Then the CDC deleted that information from its website, but kept the suggestion that exhaled droplets launched from one person to …

Support Public Health and the Public May Trust You with Their Health

In spite of many inconsistencies on how COVID-19 is spread, who’s most at risk, and when a vaccine will be (and should be) available, there has been nearly universal agreement among public health experts that wearing a face covering helps reduce risk of contracting the virus. While the issue is much more heatedly debated among the public, the plain fact is that there are many businesses you simply can’t enter unless you’re wearing a mask. …

A Cautionary Tale: ‘Unsafe Working Conditions’ May Prompt Urgent Care Docs to Strike

Physicians at a West Coast urgent care chain have voted under the auspices of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists to authorize a strike because they believe they’re forced to work in unsafe conditions. Their complaints are a deficiency in personal protective equipment, combined with long shifts and patient volumes that the doctors say are putting themselves and patients at risk. The company, which operates 27 clinics in California and the state of Washington, …

People Are Stressed Out and Anxious. Is It Time for Behavioral Health Urgent Care to Take Off?

There have been murmurs about operators launching behavioral health urgent care centers for years now, but the movement has not really gotten a foothold. There are signs that could be changing, however. Sisters of St. Mary, a major health system in the St. Louis area, has opened one such facility at DePaul Hospital while Los Angeles County, CA is finishing up construction of its own Mental Health Urgent Care Center. Local media coverage of both …

If You’ve Treated an Addict, You’ve Treated Someone at High Risk for COVID-19

Patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) are at up to 10-times the risk for COVID-19 compared with nonaddicts, according to a study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. After analyzing the electronic health records of more than 73 million patients, researchers discovered that patients addicted to opioids were at the greatest risk (10-fold higher than nonaddicts), buy by no means the only group whose addiction leaves them at increased vulnerability for the virus. Tobacco use …

Pop-Up Shops Rake in the Holiday Bucks. Can the Same Strategy Work for Urgent Care During the Pandemic?

Retailers have learned that just because something isn’t of interest to consumers 12 months a year doesn’t mean a venture can’t be highly lucrative. Think about the “pop-up” shops that appear seemingly out of nowhere every Halloween and winter holiday season. Carbon Health appears to be hoping that same strategy can work for urgent care, as the company announced the launch of 100 COVID-19 pop-up testing centers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, …

Screening for Symptoms May Be a Futile Gesture in Trying to Contain COVID-19

We told you recently how capable asymptomatic children are of spreading COVID-19. Now Anthony Fauci, MD says that statement is too limiting. The truth, according to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is that between 40% and 45% of all infections are asymptomatic. Fauci’s comments to the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) don’t bode well for the near future, as schools continue to welcome students back on campus and …

Wildfires Turn Up the Heat on Efforts to Slow COVID-19 and Prevent a Severe Flu Season

Mounting cases of COVID-19 (and associated deaths), coupled with concern that the U.S. could experience a severe flu season this year, may have given some people the sense that “things just couldn’t get any worse” from a public health standpoint. Wrong. A study published in the journal Environment International reports a link between intense wildfire seasons—like the one going on right now in western U.S. states right now—and higher incidence of influenza. Based on study …