Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Advise Patients: COVID Booster Shots May Be Updated for Fall

It’s been established that being “fully vaccinated” against SARS-CoV-2 means not only the full course of initial shots but also all available booster shots. One challenge in advising patients accordingly is that recommendations keep changing. The latest revelation from the Food and Drug Administration is that doses of booster shots may be modified by autumn 2022 in order to include some version of the omicron variant that has proved to be dominant since its discovery. …

Be Aware: ‘Big Tech’ Could Be Mining Your Systems for Sensitive Patient Information

A class action lawsuit filed by a John Doe plaintiff alleges that Meta, parent company of Facebook, has been peeking into the records of at least 644 hospital systems or “medical provider web properties.” As reported in Healthcare Dive, the suit comes on the heels of an investigative report by The Markup and Stat News that revealed specific instances in which Meta’s Pixel tracking tool dug up highly sensitive patient information that winds up in …

It’s Now Harder for Physicians to Be Prosecuted for Opioid Rxs—but That Doesn’t Diminish the Risks

The Supreme Court of the United States just issued a ruling that will make it more difficult for prosecutors to bring charges against physicians on the grounds that they violated the Controlled Substances Act. In a 6–3 vote, SCOTUS rejected lower courts’ convictions of a pair of pain specialists in Alabama and Arizona. Justice Stephen Breyer’s majority opinion expressed that the existing regulatory language is “ambiguous.” It went on to advise that future prosecutorial efforts …

The Heat Is On—and Some of Your Patients Feel It More Than Others

It’s only the second week of summer, but already some parts of the country are experiencing temperatures we don’t usually see until the “dog days” of August. Virginia, for one, was seeing record temperatures for this time of year, with extended periods of 90 degrees and above predicted as reported by WFIR News Talk Radio. With that comes concerns from the commonwealth health department that emergency rooms will soon be hit with larger numbers of …

When Kids Go to Camp, They Still Need Access to Healthcare Providers. Why Not You?

Schools have nurses to ensure there’s a competent healthcare professional nearby for emergencies, but also as a resource for kids with diabetes, allergies, and the scrapes and bruises that invariably pop up from time to time. That may not necessarily be the case for summer camps, though. Recognizing this, Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care has teamed up with summer camps in New York and Connecticut this year. According to an article published by Long Island Business …

Monkeypox Is Becoming a Greater Concern in New York City—and Urgent Care Is Responding

While the numbers are still relatively low, the rapid pace at which cases of monkeypox are growing is starting to set off alarm bells in the minds of New York City health officials. Cases increased 60% over a 4-day period, with 48 people now having been diagnosed according to the city’s health department. Recognizing both the need and the opportunity to help, MedRite Urgent Care officially partnered with the New York City Department of Health …

Follow-Up: Details of Acute Pediatric Liver Ailment Emerge as Cases Continue to Mount

Though new cases of the mysterious liver ailment that’s been preying on children for several months continue to emerge, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies around the world are now presenting a clearer picture of what we’re dealing with. Whereas previous reports referred generally to a “liver ailment” that appeared hepatitis-like, the CDC and others are now specifying that it is, in fact, unexplained acute hepatitis. Unfortunately, there’s still no …

Ongoing Acquisition Season Heats Up Southern California

JUCM News readers know that spring—and now summer, officially—has been a hot season for mergers and acquisitions in the urgent care marketplace. Every week brings news of one deal after another. This week comes news that UrgentMED is buying Urgent Care 3D and its locations in Carlsbad, Rolling Hills Estates, Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange, and Long Beach, California. Once the deal is done, UrgentMED will have 43 locations across Southern California, including its first in …

Want Loyal Support from the Community? Try Offering Loyal Support to That Community

Residents in your area probably have multiple choices when they need to visit an urgent care center. And even if your advertising and marketing efforts get your facility on their radar, is that enough to distinguish you from the competitor two blocks over? Probably not. But what could differentiate your business from others is demonstrating that yours is a business that supports the community. One urgent care operator in Texas is doing just that by …

Update: UCA Recasts Its Officers and Relays a Tribute for Its Late President

As JUCM News readers know, the Urgent Care Association’s triumphant 2022 Annual Convention in Las Vegas was followed quickly by tragedy, as news spread of the sudden death of UCA President Dr. Armando Samaniego on May 21. The Association had to scramble in order to ensure proper continuity among its elected leadership. Max Lebow, MD ascended from president-elect to president, while Payman Arabzadeh, MD became the new president-elect and Gerry Cvitanovich, MD replaced Dr. Arabzadeh …