Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

The First ‘Normal’ Halloween in Years Approaches. What Better Time for Community Outreach?

After 2 years of restrictions and worries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, communities are gearing up for a relatively normal and less-stressed Halloween. The build-up could be an ideal opportunity for urgent care centers to demonstrate their eagerness to support families and local business communities. For one, Castleview Urgent Care in Price, UT is going to offer up its parking lot as the site of a community Trunk or Treat featuring “decorated cars, lots of …

Are Staffing Challenges Preventing Urgent Care from Seizing a Moment in Its Evolution?

Regular readers of JUCM and JUCM News know the United States is scrambling to a solution for a future that will, unless trends change quickly, see fewer primary care physicians than ever relative to the patient population. What has gone under the radar for the most part until now is the equally daunting challenge of running a practice with fewer nurses, medical assistants, and various technicians. In short, at a time when urgent care has …

The Evidence Is in: Medications ‘Repurposed’ for COVID-19 Fail to Do the Trick

Though ivermectin has been the most widely discussed medication purported to help fight or prevent COVID-19, metformin and fluvoxamine have also been put forth by some as candidates to draw the pandemic to a quick close. And each of them has proven to be highly effective within their approved indications. The problem is that none has been helpful in fighting SARS-CoV-2, according to research published by The New England Journal of Medicine. After randomly assigning …

Update: ‘Twindemic’ Concerns Grow as Flu Cases Start to Amount. Are You Prepared?

As JUCM readers know, public health officials have expressed concern that the much dreaded—but previously unrealized—simultaneous spike in influenza and SARS-CoV-2 could overwhelm the U.S. healthcare system, kill unknown masses of patients, and pummel the nation’s economy. Unfortunately, fresh insights gleaned from the start of the U.S. flu season are doing nothing assuage those fears. In fact, Vanderbilt infectious disease professor and highly regarded public health expert William Schaffner, MD told NPR just last week, …

Ready or Not, the Impending Physician Shortage May Make Greater Use of APPs Inevitable

In recognition of the likelihood that primary care physicians will be in increasingly short supply over years to come, a primary care chain in Minnesota has taken the extraordinary step of staffing its six locations exclusively with nurse practitioners. As reported in Becker’s Hospital Review, The Good Clinic may even be taking a page from the urgent care playbook by promising to see patients sooner than a traditional primary care practice can these days—though their …

With COVID-19 Waning, Urgent Care Telehealth May Be at a Crossroad

Historically, telehealth has had a difficult time getting a foothold in urgent care. Some operators have found ways to make it work to their advantage, while many have found it not profitable enough to be a viable component of their business. The COVID-19 pandemic changed that for many as in-person visits tailed off dramatically for a time. Now that COVID is not perceived as a threat on the same level it was, some are questioning …

Hurricane Ian Reminds Us: You Can’t Afford Not to Have a Disaster Plan

With Hurricane Ian battering Florida and promising to wreak more havoc as it moves north and west for days to come, urgent care centers and other healthcare services are struggling to stay open. Ascension St. Vincent’s urgent care, primary care, and specialty clinics will be closed through at least Friday. Tampa General Hospital has closed some ambulatory care locations while canceling elective surgeries for a few days. Others are sure to follow suit as the …

The CDC Says You Can Drop Masking Rules for Your Workers. The Question Is, Should You?

In a sign that President Biden’s offhand remark that “the pandemic is over” may be closer to the truth than first thought, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it’s dropping its universal masking guideline for healthcare workers. The move came after weeks of diminishing hospitalizations for COVID-19. The one caveat is that healthcare facilities should make their own determinations on masking based on conditions in their communities or proximity to immunocompromised patients. …

HCA Isn’t Done Shopping for Urgent Care Centers

It wasn’t that long ago that we told you HCA Healthcare was buying BetterMed, adding 12 locations in central Virginia to the fold. Now HCA has announced an even bigger purchase: MD Now Urgent Care and its 59 centers in Florida, giving it 170 locations in 19 markets. The deal is yet another example of the value that companies with substantial hospital holdings see in acquiring urgent care properties. For more insights on that phenomenon …

Be Prepared: As Legal Access to Marijuana Grows, so Do Related Patient Visits

As the business of selling marijuana has grown from your neighborhood dealer to medical dispensaries and stores licensed to sell weed for recreational uses, emergency rooms have started seeing an increase in patients presenting with cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). Symptoms include dehydration, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. An article just published by JAMA Network reveals a connection between the commercialization of the marijuana industry and a 13-fold increase in CHS-related visits to the emergency room …