Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

With Four Children Dead Already, CDC Warns This Flu Season Could Be Severe

It’s relatively early in the season, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that influenza activity is already rising—and several markers are higher than normally seen this early. Four children have already died this season, and four of the CDC’s 10 regions are at or above their regional baselines. Another bad sign: Australia, whose data are often a predictor of flu severity in the U.S., just completed its worst flu season on record. …

Abstracts in Urgent Care – December 2017

GLENN HARNETT, MD Innovative Rapid Tests Show Promise in Influenza Key point: Novel DIAs and rapid NAATs had markedly higher sensitivities for influenza A and B in both children and adults than did traditional RIDTs, with equally high specificities. Citation: Merckx J, Wali R, Schiller I et al. Diagnostic accuracy of novel and traditional rapid tests for influenza infection compared with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Intern Med. 2017;167(6):394-409. …

AFC Will Support Vets and Public Health on Veterans Day

National urgent care operator American Family Care (AFC) is going to offer free flu shots to Americans who have served in the military this Veterans Day (Saturday, November 11). It’s actually taking a page from the military’s own book, as the U.S. armed services was the first body to initiate an influenza vaccination policy back in the 1940s. The Veterans Day effort goes beyond a feel-good publicity campaign, owing to the fact that veterans tend …

New Flu Vaccine Codes—and an Update on Proposed Changes to the E/M Guidelines

Q: Do you have information on the 2017-2018 influenza vaccine codes? A: The American Medical Association (AMA) recently published a list of new and revised vaccine codes on their website (https://www.ama-assn.org/sites/default/files/media-browser/public/cpt/vaccine-long-desc-july-2017.pdf). These codes will be published in the 2018 Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) manual. The two new influenza vaccines on the list are: 90682, “Influenza virus vaccine, quadrivalent (RIV4), derived from recombinant DNA, hemagglutinin (HA) protein only, preservative and antibiotic free, for intramuscular use” 90756, …

Abstracts in Urgent Care – November 2017

Brain Study Suggests a Link Between CTE and Football—Even Among Youths Key point: A high proportion of deceased players of American football showed pathological evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, suggesting that CTE may be related to prior participation in football. Citation: Mez J, Daneshvar DH, Kiernan PT, et al. Clinicopathological evaluation of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in players of American football. JAMA. 2017;318(4):360–370. This widely referenced JAMA study presents a convenience sample of 202 deceased players of …

CDC: Offering a Flu Shot Moves More Pregnant Women to Get One

Despite the fact that pregnant women and infants are increased risk for severe, influenza-related illness, nearly half of women approaching childbirth fail to get a flu shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, in a recently published study, the CDC also found that simply offering to give a pregnant woman a flu shot increased the rate of coverage from 56% to around 70%. The report is careful to distinguish making a …

CDC Offers Guidance on Treating Patients Returning Home from Hurricane Areas

Urgent care centers in hurricane-affected areas have probably gotten into the habit of looking for sudden respiratory ailments and signs of illness related to consumption of tainted water or food. However, the vast numbers of relief workers and volunteers who flocked to help residents affected by the recent storms are now returning home, where providers may not have such issues at the top of their minds. Recognizing that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention …

UCA Asks the Public: Are You Urgent Care Prepared for Flu Season?

The Urgent Care Association has launched a public-facing campaign to get consumers to head to their local urgent care center to ward off influenza, now that the season has officially begun. In addition to stressing that the urgent care center is “the best place to receive flu vaccinations and other key winter healthcare services,” UCA’s message also focuses on herd immunity—the notion that higher immunization rates will result in lower incidence of illness across the …

CDC Says Flu Vaccines Have ‘Plateaued’—so Start Promoting Its Benefits

Just the other day we shared data indicating that healthcare professionals are far less inclined to get a flu shot if their workplace doesn’t require it or offer the immunizations on site. Now comes word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the whole country’s influenza vaccination rate has plateaued—leaving us all at higher risk for an outbreak. New figures from the CDC reveal that since the 2013-2014 season, the rate for adults …

Want to Drive Flu Shot Compliance for Your Providers? Demand It!

Despite longstanding advice that people over the age of 6 months should be vaccinated against influenza, more than half of healthcare professionals (HCPs) opt out unless they’re required to get a shot by their employers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 75% of HCPs got a flu shot in preparation for the 2016-2017 flu season—but in clinics and other settings where vaccination was not “required, promoted, or offered on site,” …

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