Practice Management
Mainstream and healthcare media (including JUCM and JUCM News) have been warning for weeks that the United States could be teed up for a twindemic—simultaneous epidemic-level cases of both COVID-19 and influenza—this year. As it turns out, that could be a less-than-worst-case scenario this winter. A report published by The New York Times says it would be prudent to throw respiratory syncytial virus into the mix of things to worry about in the coming months; …
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As countless adages would attest, most of the scenarios we worry about never come to fruition. Unfortunately, new data on the healthcare workforce indicate that concerns about provider shortages are an exception. According to a Definitive Healthcare report entitled Addressing the Healthcare Staffing Shortage, the United States healthcare system lost 333,942 providers in 2021—with the majority (117,000) being physicians. The grand total also included 75,999 advanced-practice practitioners (53,295 nurse practitioners and 22,704 physician assistants). Internal …
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Drugstore companies have had a fair degree of success offering some form of walk-in care for vaccinations and lower-acuity complaints. Big-box store operators keep trying but have yet to hit on a health concept that works. Now the parent company of a successful convenience store chain, QuikTrip, appears to be gaining some traction by providing more traditional urgent care services than one would find in a retail pharmacy. Having seen success with 11 such centers …
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The United States Department of Agriculture is investing $110 million toward development and improvement of healthcare resources in rural parts of 43 U.S. states and Guam. Funds from the Emergency Rural Health Grants Program are earmarked to help rural hospitals and healthcare providers buy medical supplies, boost staffing levels for COVID-19 vaccines and testing, build or renovate facilities, and initiate telehealth and nutrition-assistance programs. The program is also intended to “help regional partnerships, public bodies, …
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Just weeks ago we told you that 17 hospitals and healthcare systems from coast to coast were cutting back certain services. One of them, Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, has already closed its emergency room and the ripple effect is threatening to overwhelm other area healthcare facilities. Within days of Wellstar closing its ED doors, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, Grady Memorial Hospital, and Emory Midtown Hospital reported surges in their ED traffic, with Grady also seeing 25% …
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As JUCM News readers know, infectious disease and public health experts have been saying for weeks that we could see a severe flu season this year, especially compared to the last few when people wore masks and practiced social distancing due to COVID-19. Data are already proving them out, and the fact that they’re emerging so early in the season is raising red flags. Not only that, but some of the states with the highest …
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A ransomware attack threw CommonSpirit Health hospitals into disarray recently, leaving electronic health record systems useless and wreaking havoc on understaffed emergency rooms, according to a report from Becker’s Health IT. The company said it was working to determine the depth and effect of the attack. There was no word on who was responsible for the attack or what the end objective may be. The best time to assess the level of risk with any …
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There’s been plenty of research into why some patients get over COVID-19 fairly quickly while others struggle for months with postacute sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC, more colloquially known as “long COVID”). Now comes word that pandemic-related burnout continues to haunt healthcare providers even as caseloads remain lower than at any other point in years. According to part two (of three) of a survey from The Physician’s Foundation entitled Understanding the State of Physicians’ Wellbeing and …
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As JUCM News readers are (very well) aware, Walmart has tried multiple times to gain a foothold in the U.S. healthcare marketplace in ways that could conceivably have been competitive with urgent care and existing retail health outlets. First it was with their own retail clinics, then telehealth, and buying existing primary care properties. Now, as reported by Becker’s Hospital Review, the company wants to get into the medical research business. The company said in …
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An urgent care center may, in effect, be throwing a lifeline to residents in the Ward 8 section of Washington, DC. According to an article published by The Washington Post, people in the area have been living with poor access to healthcare and, consequently, poor health outcomes for too long. So, it was big news when Universal Health Services partnered with George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and GW Medical Faculty Associates …
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