Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Urgent Care Is Adapting to Fill Various Niches During the Pandemic; Don’t Get Left Behind

As we’ve discussed in previous issues of JUCM News, urgent care was largely left out of the mix when public health officials were strategizing how to cope with the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many centers scrambled to get testing supplies and then to establish themselves as testing centers; other, multilocation operators established some locations as “COVID-free” zones while instructing symptomatic patients to visit one particular clinic. Next Level Urgent Care is going another …

Could Pool Sampling Ease the Burden on Your Occ Med Customers? We May Find Out Soon

One of the vexing issues employers are facing is how to welcome workers back to their jobs without subjecting them to undue risk of exposure to COVID-19. Testing each person before they’re permitted to enter the building might sound like the safest option, but doing so would be so time-consuming as to be completely impractical. Pool sampling—in which a batch of samples is run through a single diagnostic test—could be one way to test large …

COVID-19 Might Be Transmitted Perinatally; Here’s What You Need to Tell Pregnant Patients

Research has indicated that mothers can transmit SARS-CoV-2 to their infants in the perinatal period. However, a study just published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health suggests that specific precautions can minimize that risk. The observational cohort study included all neonates born to mothers positive for SARS-CoV-2 at delivery in three New York Presbyterian Hospitals in New York City between March 22 and May 17, 2020. None of the babies born to those 116 …

Patients Flock to Urgent Care for Sexually Transmitted Infections in Ever-Growing Numbers

The relative anonymity and immediacy of urgent care make it an attractive option for patients who are concerned they could have a sexually transmitted infection. It should come as no surprise, then, that urgent care visits for STIs have increased steadily. According to a new study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, visits related to testing or treatment for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and unspecified diagnosed STIs all increased between 2010 and 2014 in U.S. urgent care centers. …

Once Lauded, then Discredited, Hydroxychloroquine Might Help Fight COVID-19 After All—in Some Patients

Hydroxychloroquine has had its share of champions and naysayers since it was first proposed as a possible treatment for patients infected with COVID-19. Now a study presented at the Virtual Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis in Cepagatti, Italy indicates the pendulum is settling somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. If the conclusions of the study are correct, hydroxychloroquine really can offer a benefit to some patients—and the authors of …

If Kids Are Going Back to School, Adults Can Go Back to Work—Can You Help them Do It Safely?

This has been a big week for school districts announcing their plans for the new school year. In some parts of the country, hopes are high that they can start again full-time, on-site, and without incident. Other districts are concocting complex schemes to have children learn in school sometimes and at home others. Either way, this paves the way for businesses to open up again in earnest. The question is, how can employers—some of whom …

What You Need to Tell Patients Who Scoff at the COVID-19 Death Rate

Undoubtedly, you’ve seen people out in the world acting as if COVID-19 isn’t a problem. (First clue: They’re resistant to wearing a mask.) Some even say the pandemic is nothing but a hype, quoting the “low” death rate (anywhere from 0.3% to 1.5%) to support their argument. What they’re not appreciating—which you might be able to help them see—is the high transmission rate. An article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal quotes Eric Toner, …

UCA Webinar: Disregard Your Duty to Report and You Put Your Patients and Your Reputation at Risk

An urgent care provider’s professional, ethical, and legal obligation to the patient doesn’t stop at providing competent care. There are some circumstances in which you have a duty to report suspicious circumstances that have little, if anything, to do with the patient’s presenting complaint. If you’re a bit hazy about where that responsibility begins and ends, you could be on shaky ground if you miss the opportunity to step in. The Urgent Care Association will …

Virtual Care Is a Hit with Patients Who’ve Tried It During the Pandemic—and They Want More

If you’ve been following JUCM News or the “snapshot” surveys the Urgent Care Association has been conducting, you know that urgent care operators have been trying out telemedicine in greater numbers since the pandemic took hold in the U.S. The whole concept was new for many patients, as well—but according to a study by Accenture at least 60% of patients who have used virtual care tools recently say they would like to use technology to …

Obesity + COVID-19 Is a Riskier Combination than Previously Understood

While many conditions associated with or exacerbated by obesity (eg, diabetes, heart disease) have been tied to greater risk for patients who become infected with COVID-19, a study just published in the European Journal of Endocrinology suggests that obesity is an independent risk factor for severe disease and death with the virus. Researchers analyzed the outcomes of 482 patients with COVID-19 who were hospitalized between March 1 and April 20, 2020. Of those patients, 58% …