Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Kids Do Seem Less Susceptible to COVID-19—Unless They Smoke E-Cigarettes

While children are not immune to infection from COVID-19, so far it appears they’re less susceptible than adults. One risk factor that seems to negate whatever protection youth might offer: e-cigarette use. An article just published in the Journal of Adolescent Health reveals that adolescents who have ever used e-cigarettes are five times more likely than nonusers to receive a COVID-19 diagnosis. Kids who acknowledge using e-cigarettes within the past 30 days at the time …

Retail Clinics Are Having a Hard Time Bouncing Back—with Some Going Virtual

JUCM News readers know the urgent care industry took a pretty big hit in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re starting to come back strong, but retail clinics are having a harder time rebounding. RediClinic just announced it will close all 36 of its locations in Texas, in favor of expanding its telemedicine offerings for patients—for which they’re aligning with Rite Aid Virtual Care. Most of those locations were associated with H-E-B food …

Occupational Medicine Clients Need You Now More Than Ever. Can You Step Up?

The intersection of wellness and the ability to work has never been more precarious than it is today. More and more businesses are opening up. People are heading back to work—some enthusiastically, some with trepidation about the risks. Urgent care operators who offer occupational medicine services could offer solutions and reassurance to all parties, provided they’re able to make the case with decision-makers. A new article in Personnel Today points out that the chaos and …

Beware Postcards Fraudulently Demanding You Do a HIPAA Compliance Risk Assessment

If you’ve received a postcard purporting to be from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), asking you to complete a “mandatory” HIPAA compliance risk assessment, be aware that it’s a fake. There is no such assessment required. National Government Services issued a warning to healthcare professionals to let them know that the URL and phone number included in the text of the postcard actually belong to a nongovernmental website for a group that offers marketing …

Make Sure You Understand the Implications of COVID-19 on Immunization as Kids Head Back to School

Back-to-school time typically means parents are scrambling to make sure their children’s immunization status is current. This year, of course, how (or even if) schools should reopen is a hotly debated issue in many communities. Regardless of how that controversy works out in your neck of the woods, you have to be prepared to administer needed vaccines—and to answer questions. Anticipating this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has produced a Vaccination Guidance During …

Do You Know Which COVID-19 Symptoms Occur First? You Should

Patients are understandably (albeit overanxiously) concerned about every little cough these days. You want to be reassuring, but also keep an open mind about the prospects of them having COVID-19. New research from the University of Southern California’s Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience sheds light on which symptoms are most likely to occur first in COVID-19 patients, in order: Fever Cough Muscle pain Nausea and/or vomiting Diarrhea Bear this in mind when counseling patients about …

Some Urgent Care Operators Have Found Telemedicine Useful in the Pandemic—so What’s Next?

Many urgent care operators who couldn’t see the value in offering telemedicine services when patients could visit them on site at-will have changed their thinking since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Too many patients decided they could wait, or forego care completely, rather than take what they saw as a risk in visiting a healthcare facility. As it turned out, telemedicine gave those operators a chance to stay connected with patients and provide care where …

Train Your Staff: Don’t Fall for Phony ‘Mask Exemption’ Cards

There’s a new tactic being employed by people who don’t want to comply with rules on wearing a mask when entering any number of businesses, including urgent care centers. At least one “enterprising” company is even trying to make a buck off the issue, in fact, by producing a bogus “Medical Mask Exemption” card. It states that the bearer “is exempt from face mask usage requirements” and that “wearing a face mask poses a mental …

Urgent Care Is Hitting Its Stride in Fighting COVID-19—and Seeing Record Visits

Urgent care may have been relegated to the sidelines at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has entered the game and is contributing in a big way if new data from Experity are any indication. The health information technology company revealed record high visits in July, including 105,000 patients on July 6 alone—the highest single-day volume of the year. The company’s interpretation of the data is that urgent care centers are playing a …

UCA Partners Up on Database to Help Patients Find Centers with COVID-19 Testing Resources

The urgent care community continues to find innovative ways to ensure it’s not left out of the discussion—and on the sidelines when lives are at stake—during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The latest development is an Urgent Care Association initiative, in partnership with Braid Health, to offer covid-test-finder.com, an online database highlighting urgent care clinics that offer COVID-19 diagnostic or antibody testing in local communities. In the press release announcing availability of the database, UCA CEO …