Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

‘Forward’ Is Moving in That Direction—But How Far?

In a bold attempt to wrangle Millennial patients in search of a healthcare setting that meets their needs, a company called Forward is billing itself as the “Next Gen Doctor’s Office.” Its website promises whole-body wellness, a personalized health plan, and unlimited office visits (and “app support”). Essentially, it’s a direct, membership-based primary care model that offers 24/7 on-demand access via telemedicine. The obvious question for JUCM News readers is, what does this mean for …

Get Ready to Deal with Independence Day Mishaps

Just as sure as your dog will be cowering in the corner once fireworks start booming, urgent care centers can expect to see a range of injuries related to “celebrations” gone awry in the coming days. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the most common injuries occur to hands and fingers, followed by the head and face, the legs, and the eyes. Last year, Independence Day sent roughly 9,100 people to emergency rooms. The …

Nice Job! Flu Shots May Have Prevented 90,000 Hospitalizations This Season

In a flu season that has been classified as the worst in decades, influenza vaccinations prevented anywhere from 40,000 to 90,000 hospitalizations according to data just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The effectiveness data are less straightforward; the 2018–2019 vaccine was 29% effective overall. That figure is deceptively low, however, in that the CDC says this year’s vaccine offered “no significant protection” against H3N2 influenza, but lowered the risk of H1N1 …

Make a ‘Formal’ Commitment to Antibiotic Stewardship

It’s an inescapable, irrefutable fact that too many clinicians are writing too many prescriptions for unwarranted antibiotics in the United States. We all know the consequences, too; around 23,000 Americans die every year from drug-resistant infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Urgent care certainly is not immune to the misguided practice, but as an industry we’re taking strong steps to reverse the trend. The most recent development: The Urgent Care Association, …

An Approach to Cutting Inappropriate Antibiotic Use in Urgent Care

The key to safer, appropriate use of antibiotics may lie in something as simple as better education for both physicians and patients, according to a new study published in Academic Emergency Medicine. Funded by a contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers at UC Davis saw inappropriate prescriptions for antibiotics fall by one third in nine emergency departments and urgent care centers in California and Colorado after introducing one of two educational …

Washington Post Says This Urgent Care Company is a ‘Top Workplace’ in the Mid-Atlantic

In a crowded employment market—let alone in the healthcare industry—Patient First has been cited by the Washington Post as one of the top places to work in the entire mid-Atlantic region, based on the Post’s sixth annual Top Workplaces survey. The company says a big part of the reason is employee retention, with many staff members having been on board for over 20 years. Having a workplace where talented staff are fired up to commit …

STI Cases Are Climbing—and a Lot of Those Patients Are Likely to Visit an Urgent Care Center

The World Health Organization just released data indicating that more than a million new sexually transmitted infections occur in individuals 15 to 49 years of age every day worldwide. The domestic situation is no better, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are “steep and sustained increases in sexually transmitted diseases” in the U.S. The relative anonymity of urgent care, where patients are less likely to have an ongoing medical relationship with …

Beware Shady Competition Who May Be Playing the Name Game on Google

The internet age has made it possible for urgent care operators to reach patients who would have otherwise never heard of them. When someone wakes up sick and needs to see a provider, they’re likely to head right to Google and type in “urgent care” and their location. This may be especially true of travelers just passing through your area now that vacation season is here. Savvy operators have developed methods (such as search engine …

CityMD–Summit Merger: Can One Company Be All Things to All Patients?

In announcing their plans to merge, CityMD and Summit Medical Group say they envision creating a single organization that would offer patients a “seamless experience across a full spectrum of high-quality primary, specialty, and urgent care.” It would be premature to assume they’ll succeed or fail in that attempt, but what is undeniable is that the resulting organization will be a very large one. CityMD has become nearly ubiquitous in the New York City metropolitan …

Measles Isn’t the Only Preventable Disease on the Rise—Watch Out for Hep A

The winter of 2018–2019 was full of headlines tracking the worst flu season in decades. Then, the resurgence of measles—thought to be “eliminated” in the United States in 2000—took the spotlight. More quietly, and even more insidiously than measles, hepatitis A cases have been mounting across the country. In Ohio alone, 2,997 cases were confirmed over the past year. Since 2016, there have been 20,133 in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control …