Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Better Antibiotic Stewardship May Start with Improving Diagnostic Stewardship

Urgent care as an industry has made a firm commitment to reducing inappropriate prescriptions for antibiotics. Most often, we picture a clinician resisting patient demands for a script even though they’re experiencing a viral respiratory infection or fighting the urge to write one just in case a culture comes back positive. According to a Medpage Today article based on data presented at IDWeek, a group of hospitals in Michigan found that taking a step back …

Is It Time for Urgent Care to Overcome Challenges to Offering Mental Health Services?

Urgent care has made its reputation on being able to offer a wide array of services for patients who don’t need to go to the emergency room but who shouldn’t wait days to go to a primary care practice. For reasons that are many (and valid), that has not extended to patients who need access to mental health services. Most obviously, it’s not what most urgent care centers were created to do, and so are …

Disparities Could Leave Some Patients at Greater Risk for Flu and Poor Outcomes This Year

With this flu season expected to be harsher than others in recent years, while respiratory syncytial virus and COVID-19 are also circulating widely, it will be especially important to ensure that as many Americans as possible are suitably vaccinated. Unfortunately, as was made clearer than ever during the height of the pandemic, some racial and ethnic groups are at greater risk for illness and poor outcomes during viral outbreaks. In fact, according to a new …

Follow-Up: ‘Tripledemic’ Worries May Be Well-Founded, and Realized Sooner Than Later

Just last week, we told you that unusually high cases of respiratory syncytial virus, added to existing concerns over COVID-19 and influenza season, have public health officials in the United States worrying about simultaneous epidemic-level surges of all three viruses. Already, data are pouring in from around the country, raising the alarm that what was first thought to be a potential near-future problem may be an actual present-day crisis. An article published in the Virginia …

Warning: Social Media Posts Don’t Have to Name Names in Order to Violate Patient Privacy

Optimistically, you could presume that urgent care employees get the urge to post about their shift on social media because they’re proud of the work they do. Or, they may just find certain cases newsworthy or to have a novel aspect that would be of interest to friends and followers. Most, if not all, would understand that identifying a patient by name would be unethical and illegal. An ugly legal case unfolding in Florida right …

With Rumored Merger, Walgreens May Be Inching Closer to Urgent Care Territory

Having already staked a solid claim to primary care by investing heavily in VillageMD and announcing its intention to build a thousand clinics within its pharmacies over the next 5 years, Walgreens is said to be looking at a merger with CityMD’s parent company Summit Health. Both Healthcare Dive and Bloomberg have reported that such a deal could be finalized within weeks, resulting in a company whose value would range from $5 billion and $10 …

Urgent Care Could Be the Answer to Shortfalls in the New Paxlovid Delivery Program

At first glance, Walgreens’ plan to partner with Uber and DoorDash to provide free delivery of Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets; ritonavir tablets) for COVID-19 patients in underserved communities looks like a great plan that could be invaluable in warding off a winter surge. Look a bit deeper, though, and it’s unclear exactly how effective the plan will be. Most problematically, it presumes that those underserved communities have a Walgreens nearby and that the ride share and …

Low Staffing and High Demand Leave Retail Pharmacists—and Patients—in a Bind

Retail drugstore companies continue to ask pharmacists to perform more and higher-acuity services while, simultaneously, staffing issues are forcing them to reduce hours of operation and, with that, accessibility to patients. It seems clear there’s a chasm between corporate expectations and the training pharmacists have undergone in order to become the experts they are in pharmacology—which decidedly does not include conducting exams and diagnosing illness. A nonscientific review of mainstream media coverage indicates that nearly …

Another Incentive to Prescribe Judiciously: Amoxicillin Is in Short Supply

High demand, supply-chain challenges, and difficulties sourcing raw materials are combining to leave the United States with an insufficient supply of amoxicillin. According to an article published by Bloomberg, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, and Sandoz are experiencing shortages of multiple dosage forms of the antibiotic (though the greatest deficit is with the liquid form). The net effect is that new orders are being limited to ensure current demand can be met for as long …

Apple Is Betting Access to Data Is Enough to Launch an Insurance Business. What Would That Mean to Urgent Care?

Apple is likely to partner with an existing major player as a first step in to the healthcare insurance marketplace in 2024, according to an article published by Forbes. The whole idea seems to bank on the value of the rich data available via the Apple Watch line of products. The question is, how is that asset expected to translate to positive broker relationships and, ultimately, sufficient market share to support the business? History doesn’t …