Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Ignore Potential Competitors from the Big Box Sector at Your Peril

Urgent care operators have gotten more competitive with each other in recent years, working tirelessly to distinguish themselves and investing in new technologies to ensure the overall patient experience continues to exceed expectations. They’ve also had to make it clear to patients that urgent care offers a wider range of services than retail drugstores as those companies have tried to get a piece of the walk-in care action. There’s another setting that’s gone somewhat under …

Not Controversial, Just Hard to Come by: Fair Pay for Urgent Care Services Rendered

It’s safe to say no one reading this would disagree that urgent care centers fulfill an essential role in the U.S. healthcare landscape of 2019. It follows that fair compensation for care provided at an urgent care center should be a given. As you undoubtedly know, that’s not necessarily the case, however, and the Urgent Care Association is trying to make sure the parties with the authority to change that inequity get the message. UCA …

Vaping Raises Already-High Risk During Flu Season

With flu season in its early days and news reports revealing the true dangers of vaping on a daily basis, it appears the combination of the two could create a “perfect storm” with deadly consequences. Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reveals that use of e-cigarettes disrupts a person’s innate immune response to viral infections; the effect is especially severe in women, according to the report. Another study, this …

If the Patient Can’t Come to Urgent Care, Why Not Bring Urgent Care to the Patient?

Urgent care offers convenience that’s just not feasible in a traditional primary care practice, at a price far lower than the emergency room would charge for the same acuity-level of care. That’s why it’s caught on. Similarly, urgent care providers who offer occupational medicine services have found success in offering those benefits to local businesses, especially those whose work force engages in physical labor or has a public safety aspect to it (such as warehouses …

Be Aware: Another Multistate Outbreak Is Claiming Lives

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in the midst of investigating an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections that have sickened dozens—and left two people dead. Cases have occurred in 13 states, to date, with most patients requiring hospitalization. No specific source has been identified. Listeria symptoms vary greatly by patient and site of infection, but common complaints include fever and diarrhea similar to other food-borne infections. Pregnant women who are infected tend to …

New Data Reveal Why Patients Keep (and Will Continue) Flocking to Urgent Care

High costs are forcing consumers to think long and hard about where they want to go when the need to see a healthcare provider, according to data newly released by Loyale Healthcare—which dovetails with the growing availability (and popularity) of urgent care. The authors of the report note that urgent care centers “represent an increasingly popular low-cost alternative to hospital emergency departments.” Further, their utility has been amplified by “the Millennial generation’s preferences for convenience …

Despite the Need and Good Intentions, #MeToo May Have Unintended Consequences

Legitimate, well-researched news stories have made it clear that sexual harassment, and sometimes even sexual assault, have been pervasive in American workplaces. Healthcare, including urgent care, is not immune. The need to take action to stop it, or at least levy serious consequences on those who commit abuses, is beyond debate. Unfortunately, however, even righteous causes sometimes have unintended consequences. An article just published in the Harvard Business Review reports a growing backlash against #MeToo, …

Telemedicine Continues to Sink In—But to What Effect?

It’s undeniable that telemedicine is one of the most widely discussed, evolving topics in medicine today. What is less clear is how it is likely to affect the general public’s approach to healthcare and actual clinical outcomes, and what impact it will have on office-based settings (including urgent care). An article just published in The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) confirms that the ability to dial in for a medical encounter is resonating with …

What’s the Most Prevalent, Multistate Outbreak NOT Making Headlines?

Measles and chicken pox, soon to be joined once again by influenza, seem to get all the headlines but right now there’s a less talked-about infectious organism wreaking havoc literally from coast-to-coast. As we speak, nearly 1,700 new cases of cyclosporiasis have been reported in 33 states since May 1. Worse, the pace of the outbreak is picking up steam as the weeks fly by. As recently as July 23, there were “only” 580 cases …

Your Expertise Can Be a Powerful Promotional Tool in the Community

Vaping seems to be linked to pulmonary disease—even killing some patients. Vaccine-preventable diseases like measles are reappearing in alarming numbers. Flu season is coming, and the public needs to be reminded that they need to wash their hands regularly and stay home from work if they have symptoms that could be the result of influenza infection. More and more, healthcare news is mainstream news, and local television stations, cable news outlets, online publications, and newspapers …