Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Special Needs Patients Need Special Considerations—and Some Centers Are Prepared to Provide Them

Patients with special needs may offer particular challenges for urgent care providers and front desk staff. Communication, for example, can be difficult when working with individuals on the autism spectrum. Recognizing this, Heavens Urgent Care in Apache Junction, AZ has ensured that every staff member be trained to “better identify, communicate, and treat patients who may be autistic and need adjustments to their clinical experience or treatment,” according to an article published by the Apache …

A Potentially Deadly Duo of Respiratory Viruses Is Descending on Florida. Who Could Be Next?

After a couple of light seasons (presumably due to hygiene precautions designed to reduce spread of COVID-19), a full-force return of seasonal influenza was expected. What may not have been expected, however, is that said return of flu would occur well past what we consider the “season” to be. That’s exactly what’s happening in Florida right now, though—and the surge is coinciding with recent outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus, as well. All told, there have …

Can Urgent Care Do More to Ensure Team Members Are Safe at Work?

Healthcare facilities have seen violence against workers and patients in the U.S. recently, begging the question as to whether there is any level of protection that is both reasonable and sufficient to ensure the safety of all on site. First four people in Tulsa, OK—two physicians, a receptionist, and a patient—were shot to death by a disgruntled patient and then days later a man walked into an Encino, CA emergency room and stabbed a physician …

Overwhelmed with Patients, a Health System Calls Out for Help from Urgent Care

PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, WA has been so inundated with patients lately that its administrators have taken to local media to urge patients to carefully assess their complaints and consider whether they really need to visit the emergency room—with a recommendation that if the answer is No, they instead head for the most convenient urgent care center or a primary care practice. A PeaceHealth emergency physician suggested that his facility and other EDs …

A Dead Child, a Grim Reminder: Trust Your Gut If Something Seems Off About a Child’s Injuries

News outlets in New Mexico have renewed calls for governmental investigation into the death of a 4-year-old boy under gruesome circumstances, particularly into how state youth protective services missed obvious signs of abuse that should have triggered intervention. As reported by the Albuquerque Journal, 2 months before James Dunklee Cruz died he was brought to an urgent care center with an injured shoulder, a black eye, and bruising on his penis—all at the hands of …

Concerns About Healthcare Worker Burnout Are at a Fever Pitch—So How Are YOU Doing?

For all the discussion and outreach efforts (including in JUCM and JUCM News) to warn healthcare facilities that burnout is a serious threat to providers and, consequently, patients, the problem has become so widespread that U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA writes that it has become a “crisis that is now affecting not only healthcare workers, but the communities they serve.” His department’s report, Addressing Health Worker Burnout—The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on …

Update: The CDC Does an About-Face on Monkeypox Guidance

Just last week, JUCM News noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had classified monkeypox as a Level 2 threat, with a risk of transmission sufficient to warrant wearing a mask while traveling. Now the CDC has backed off a bit, removing the masking recommendation for travelers but maintaining that “people infected with monkeypox [should] wear a mask if they must be around others in their homes if close, face-to-face contact is likely.” …

A Hot Market Has Some Established Operators Stepping Outside Their Comfort Zone

The past few weeks have seen a lot of action on the merger and acquisition front in the urgent care marketplace. The latest deal to come to light brings together a well-established local chain (Texas MedClinic, whose 20 locations are highly visible in San Antonio and Austin) with a private equity-backed, multistate operator (Community Care Partners, whose 90-plus locations stretch across seven states from Washington to Louisiana under the BestMed, SouthStar Urgent Care, and Coastal …

As Visits Swell, Can New Measures Help Stabilize Patient Flow?

Emergency rooms and urgent care centers in some metropolitan areas are struggling under the weight of high patient volumes. As detailed in an article published in the Boston Globe, for example, South Shore Health in Massachusetts is averaging 105 ambulance arrivals daily currently, compared with its more typical 80 to 90 per day in the past. That, naturally, is leading to an overcrowded emergency room (165 patients in the 70-bed ED on a recent day). …

In the Midst of Another COVID Surge, Some Patients Are Still Struggling After the Last One

As the latest Omicron variants continue to spread throughout various sections of the United States, leading to a new surge in COVID-19 cases, it’s important to keep in mind that many patients are still dealing with becoming infected months ago. A special panel convened by the American College of Physicians has issued a guidance specifically on the care of long COVID patients, with the caveat that a proper definition of “long COVID” continues to be …