Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Want to Reduce Antibiotic Resistance in Children? Start with Choosing the Right Patients

Too many patients take too many antibiotics over the course of their lifetimes, often beginning from a very young age. Given the too-high incidence of multidrug resistance, this seems beyond debate. While education campaigns by the Urgent Care Association and many other provider bodies have been helpful in raising awareness, clinical evidence to help guide decision-making has been relatively sparse. One new study published by The Journal of the American Medical Association could be helpful …

‘Back to Practice’ Precedes ‘Back to School.’ Remind Athletes and Families You’re There to Help

It may be midsummer, but plans are already in motion to start fall scholastic sports programs. Given the brutal heat that has affected much of the United States this season, it’s also a good time to ensure that preseason practices are conducted as safely as possible for young athletes. Banner Urgent Care, which has several locations in the Phoenix, AZ area, is leveraging the fact that many school districts require preseason physicals by promoting their …

A Novel Pediatric Resuscitation Course Designed for the Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: Urgent care centers play a vital role as a gateway into the health system for many children with acute care needs. Some of these needs require identification by the urgent care team, who may then need to stabilize the patient and initiate transfer to optimize clinical outcomes. Nikhil B. Shah, MD INTRODUCTION Pediatric office emergencies can be challenging for urgent care staff to manage. These high-stakes events do not occur frequently enough to …

Can Predicting Which Kids Are Likely to ‘Bounce Back’ Help Reduce Return Visits?

Every urgent care operator wants to see patients return again and again. It means they’re happy with the care they receive, and the economic benefits for the business are obvious. Seeing the same patients return a day or two after a visit with concerns related to their initial complaint is another matter. An article just published in Physicians Weekly reveals insights that could help you predict which kids are most likely to bounce back, however—and …

An Online Trend Is Killing Children. What Telltale Signs Should You Be Vigilant for?

A 13-year-old boy is the latest American child to lose his life after attempting a social media challenge. Per a report from WSYX in Columbus, OH, friends looked on and at least one recorded video as the boy set out to take upwards of a dozen diphenhydramine pills in the belief that he would start hallucinating—a trend known on Tik Tok as the “Benadryl challenge.” Instead, he experienced seizures and wound up in the hospital …

A Consolidation of Signs of Symptoms of Pediatric Pneumonia

Urgent message: While pneumonia in general continues to be a common diagnosis in children in the United States, relatively few studies have sought to determine the signs and symptoms that help to predict occult bacterial pneumonia. Awareness of associated signs and symptoms may assist the urgent care provider in proceeding more quickly to a correct diagnosis. Alyssa Whited, PA-C and Christina Gardner, PA-C CASE PRESENTATION A 5-year-old male with no significant past medical history presented …

Assure, Don’t Assume, You’re on All the Provider Directories You Should Be

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois’s failure to ensure its online provider directories are current should be a wake-up call for urgent care operators everywhere. As reported by Becker’s Hospital Report, the company was just fined $605,000 for violating state network transparency laws; an audit showed the company failed to audit at least 25% of provider directories to ensure they were current and that their website maintained current provider information. The implication for urgent care …

Prepare for More Young Patients; Pediatric Hospitals May Be the Next to Cut Back on Services

We reported just last week that a sharp downturn in physicians applying for obstetrics/gynecology residencies may portend a shortage in ob/gyns in hospitals and ultimately force some to reduce services. Now an opinion piece in MedPage Today suggests that children’s hospital consolidations, pediatric mental health crises, and acute surges like the one we saw recently with respiratory syncytial virus may force some institutions to look at reducing pediatric services. If that comes to pass, it’s …

New Data on Teenage Substance Abuse Are Out, and the Numbers May Surprise You

While access to marijuana and other illicit substances may have been hindered during the social distancing period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate at which teenagers continued to use alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs as of 2021 remained relatively high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report, 2011–2021, a greater proportion of female than male high school students acknowledged smoking marijuana (18% to 14%, …

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