Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Update: Pharmacists Keep Gaining Prescribing Authority. The Question Is, Is That Good for Patients?

JUCM News readers may recall controversy concerning the COVID-19 Test to Treat process, wherein pharmacists were singled out as providers qualified to participate in a speech by President Biden, followed quickly by a clarification from the Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response that urgent care centers who meet the relevant criteria may also qualify to participate. That was far from a one-off when looking at pharmacists being granted …

Creating Protocols and Making Headlines Post Publication in JUCM

You may recall reading an original research article on a new protocol for evaluating chest pain in urgent care in the April issue of JUCM. It made such a splash that the protocol and the authors, Lorilea Johnson, FNP-BC, DNP and Diane Smith, DNP, RN have been showing up in local media in the Cape Girardeau, MO area. WPSD Local 6 news and the Daily American Republic, for example, each reported on the innovative protocol …

Communication (with Patients and Oncologists) Is Key When Treating Cancer Patients

As an urgent care provider you may not treat cancer, but you certainly can expect to treat cancer patients. And when you do, you have the opportunity to alter the course of the patient’s care and quality of life in any number of ways. Take the case of an elderly patient who presented to a new primary care physician with severe numbness and tingling in his fingers and toes, as relayed in an article published …

Lifesaving Radiology Tips Are Now Just a Click Away

If you have a minute—literally—you might be able to learn something that could help you with the next patient walking through the door. Ana Echenique, MD, DABR, clinical director, quality management for Experity Teleradiology and an occasional JUCM contributor, has created a Twitter account dedicated to presenting interesting x-ray cases that include quick explanations and pearls that provide potentially valuable insights. Dr. Echenique plans to post an anonymized case every day for educational purposes. You …

‘No Time’ to Support Industry Advocacy? If You Have 15 Minutes and a Laptop, Think Again

Anyone who attended the Urgent Care Association’s recent convention in Las Vegas will tell you that the pandemic has done nothing to diminish the unified spirit among competitors in the urgent care marketplace. One of the reasons for this sense of community is the fact that the industry has had to fight for its place at the proverbial table. This does not mean the fight is over by any means. New challenges arise constantly, while …

The Urgent Care Industry Is Proving Its Resilience Despite Tough Times

Staff shortages, COVID-19, supply-chain challenges…the list of obstacles facing urgent care operators is both long and increasingly longstanding. Those obstacles continue to be overcome all over the country, however, thanks to the flexibility, persistence, and resilience our industry is known for. Of the top 15 companies (by number of clinics) whose locations provide walk-in/on-demand care, 12 are urgent care operators; the other three are retail clinics. Among the UC entities are the following companies, each …

Be Aware: Omicron Subvariants Linger and Are Increasing Risk for COVID-19 Reinfection

For all intents and purposes, life seems to have returned to normal more than any other time since March 2020. Masks are scarce, restaurants are crowded, and movie theaters are putting up blockbuster numbers. It can be easy to forget that the pandemic is not, in fact, over quite yet and that the threat of widespread reinfection may be more real than we’re comfortable acknowledging. California, for one, is struggling with a new wave of …

Batten Down the Hatches—a Perfect Storm Is Brewing on the Behavioral Health Front

JUCM News readers know that there’s been an increase in both clinician burnout and patient visits related to mental health complaints and crises over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also known is the fact that physician shortages and other staffing issues are proving to be challenging for urgent care centers all over the country. A new article published by The Journal of the American Medical Association notes that the clinician shortage is actually a …

By the Time the Fire Department Calls, It’s Too Late to Come Up with a Response Plan

You’re closed for the day. Maybe you’ve just sat down to dinner or are burning the midnight oil in your home office. Then the call comes: the fire department is at your urgent care center, working to extinguish flames that started in the building next door. Unfortunately, such a scenario was not hypothetical for Concentra Urgent Care in Santee, CA as a two-alarm fire swept through its commercial building recently. No one was injured, as …

Peak Vacation Season Ups the Risk for Drowning. Are You Prepared to Help the Victims?

With schools out and temperatures peaking all over the country, many families are heading to the beach and diving into the pool for relief from the heat. More frequent exposure to water means greater risk for drowning, however, especially for young and inexperienced swimmers. JAMA Pediatrics just published a safety guide to help parents understand where the greatest risks lie—and how to avoid them—on its patient page. It offers good common-sense advice for parents, such …