Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Evidence-Based Medicine Will Influence Malpractice Case Evaluation

The American Law Institute (ALI) has introduced a new medical malpractice standard that integrates evidence-based medicine, marking a departure from the prevailing reliance on customary medical practice. This change encourages courts to consider modern medical guidelines when evaluating negligence claims, offering a more structured approach to assessing legal liability. Individual states may adopt the new standard with their own interpretation to refine legal evaluation of malpractice cases. Historically, malpractice cases have relied on whether a …

UNC Opens Separate Campus Clinic For Test-and-Treat

On the campus of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, a walk-in health clinic operated by Campus Health opened just in time for a new school year. Open 9AM to 4:30PM Monday through Friday, students can access care at the “mini” clinic for mild illness, injury or infection for $30 per visit. Another separate clinic on the campus offers same-day care for more acute concerns, primary care, gynecology, and sports medicine with points of access to …

ED Boarding Costs Hospitals Twice as Much as Inpatient Care

Emergency department (ED) boarding has negative financial implications, according to a study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Researchers considered observational data for acute stroke patients admitted between January and February 2022 and found that the daily cost of ED boarding was nearly twice that of daily inpatient costs, even before considering the opportunity cost of keeping an ED bed occupied. For example, the total daily cost per patient with acute stroke who experienced ED …

Electronic Nudges Improve Flu Vaccine Rates

A new study in JAMA found that sending electronic reminders (or “nudges”) significantly improved influenza vaccination rates among people with chronic diseases compared to standard care. During the 2022–2023 flu season in Denmark, researchers found only 40.7% of patients with diabetes and 44.6% with heart failure received flu shots. After sending electronic letters with tailored messages to 299,881 patients aged 18 to 64 in 6 different randomized groups, the overall vaccination rate was higher for …

Oral Antibiotic Prescriptions Trending Down

From 2011 to 2019, the rate of oral antibiotic prescriptions filled at U.S. outpatient pharmacies declined by 13%. The number of prescriptions dropped from 877 per 1,000 people in 2011 to 765 per 1,000 people in 2018 and 2019. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, a total of 2.4 billion oral antibiotic prescriptions were dispensed over this time period. The most significant reduction (-25%) …

Forecasts Predict Which States Will Need More Doctors and NPs

By 2028, a nationwide shortage of 100,000 healthcare workers is expected, with certain states facing severe deficits, according to Mercer. The healthcare workforce is projected to grow to 18.6 million by 2028, a 1.5 million increase from 2023. Despite this growth, the anticipated shortfall of over 100,000 workers will further strain a healthcare system already struggling with access to care issues. Texas, California, and New York are expected to experience significant shortages of both physicians …

Urgent Care Occupational Medicine Ensures Worker Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently investigated a serious case of violations of worker safety standards that led to a 31-year-old factory employee who developed accelerated silicosis ultimately needing a double lung transplant. Other workers at the same home-products manufacturing facility in Chicago also reported unresolved lung disease from breathing silica dust, including severe illness that will require a lung transplant for at least one more employee in the future. Urgent care operators …

Physician Empathy Can Improve Outcomes For Patients With Back Pain

A new study demonstrates that the benefits of clinician empathy toward patients can be even more effective than some therapies in treating chronic low-back pain, as published in JAMA Network Open. Low-back pain affects up to 85% of the US population, and researchers found that treatment from physicians whom the patients considered “very empathic” was associated with better outcomes at the end of 1 year than treatment from “slightly empathic” physicians. Each of the 1,470 …

Emergency Medicine Workers Emotionally Exhausted

A recent study of emergency medicine healthcare workers at a large urban medical center investigated the link between sleep disturbance, burnout, and emotional exhaustion. Published in JAMA Network Open, the study found that poor sleep quality increased the likelihood of elevated emotional exhaustion by 2.45 times, and insomnia symptoms were also associated with a more than doubling of emotional exhaustion. The research was conducted between November 2020 and January 2022, involving 126 workers who completed …

Remind UC Employees of Workplace Policies

In today’s political climate, tensions can run high even among friends and families. As such, employers are wise to revisit their conduct policies and make a point of having employees refresh their knowledge of workplace and social media expectations. Of course, it’s not possible or legal for an employer to fully control what their employees say on social media because the platform has free speech protections. That means employers cannot legally prevent employees from discussing …

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