Practice Management
Preliminary findings from ongoing testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that Americans have little to no pre-existing immunity to the H5N1 avian flu virus found on dairy and poultry farms. The CDC’s conclusions are based on blood samples collected from the 2021-2023 flu seasons. These samples showed low antibody levels against the H5N1 virus, suggesting minimal immunity. Despite this, the risk to the general public remains low, according to CDC, …
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For most physicians, medicine is a calling, but for Roger Hicks, MD, FCUCM, and his daughter Marya Hicks, MD, medicine is also a team effort. As it turns out, both Roger and Marya care for patients at the same urgent care center. Patients arriving at the Dignity Health Medical Group Urgent Care of Sierra Nevada in Grass Valley, California, might not realize their care is delivered by a father-daughter duo. In a recent live interview …
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During the 2022-2023 season, pediatric hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) doubled compared to the previous year. This information comes from a study in JAMA Network Open involving 700,000 children, examining RSV-related hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions from July 1, 2017, to March 31, 2023. The hospitalization rate was 289.1 per 100,000 children in 2021-2022, which is consistent with the rates from 2017 to 2020. However in the following year, the 2022-2023 season …
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Public health officials in the Seattle area are advising local residents of a pediatric case of measles that presented to Franciscan Urgent Care – West Seattle. Because the measles virus can remain in the air for hours, there may be concerns of potential exposure for anyone who was in the center between 3:30PM and 8:00PM on June 10, they say. The most likely time an exposed person might develop symptoms would be between June 17 …
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Top officials of the digital health operator Done Global were arrested last week for alleged healthcare fraud that drove about $100 million worth of stimulant drugs into consumers’ hands. According to the Department of Justice press release, the CEO and the clinical leader of Done Global allegedly created a scheme to provide access to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs for consumers in exchange for monthly subscription fees on the telemedicine platform. The company spent millions …
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CityMD, which operates more than 175 urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey, has agreed to pay $12 million to settle allegations of violating the False Claims Act. The allegations state that for 2 years, CityMD knowingly submitted false claims to a federal health program for uninsured patients for COVID-19 testing. The Justice Department says CityMD failed to adequately verify patients’ insurance status, submitting claims for those who already had insurance. Additionally, CityMD …
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Researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital analyzed US emergency department visits for pediatric urinary tract infections (UTIs) to uncover trends in antibiotic prescribing practices. As reported by CIDRAP, from 2011 to 2020, use of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for pediatric UTIs prescriptions declined from 20.6% to 9.9% of visits—which was considered encouraging against concerns for increasing drug resistance—and the use of enteral first-generation cephalosporins increased from 15.2% to 32.6% of visits. Meanwhile, use of enteral third-generation cephalosporins remained flat. …
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Two new, highly contagious fungal infections that cause rashes have been identified in the United States by New York University Langone Health researchers, according to Becker’s. The fungi species Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII have produced severe skin infections, typically in men who have male sexual partners. Infections are challenging to treat, according to the news item, but they have been responding to treatment with terbinafine. A separate study also found that Trichophyton indotineae infections tend …
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Urgent care operators who rely on search engine optimization (SEO)—in other words, the art of building a website that Google will punch up to the top of search results for prospective patients—essentially have to guess at what digital tactics will get them into the top spot on Google. For the most part, Google’s algorithms have always been a closely guarded secret. Recently, media outlets like Inc. reported that some proprietary Google search algorithms were leaked. …
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The Food and Drug Administration is considering a recommendation for tailoring the COVID-19 vaccines for the 2024-2025 respiratory virus season to the JN.1 variant, according to Reuters. It’s been the dominant variant this year, and shots may target JN.1’s subvariants as well. The subvariant KP.2 was estimated to account for more than 28% of COVID-19 cases over a 2-week period in mid-May. Not unlike the annual flu vaccine, COVID vaccines are developed months in advance …
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