Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Urgent Care Management of Acute Otitis Media in Children

Urgent message: The possibility of ear infection is the most common reason parents seek care for their young children during viral upper respiratory infections with fever. Urgent care providers should know the new criteria for making the clinical diagnosis and how to use technology such as an acoustic otoscope before concluding that antibiotics are necessary. MICHAEL E. PICHICHERO, MD Diagnosing acute otitis media (AOM) is a visual process based on viewing the eardrum and determining …

Janitorial and Maintenance Roundtable: Best Practices for Managing Environmental Services

Urgent message: Every urgent care center must have a plan to clean and maintain its physical facility. In this JUCM-exclusive panel discussion, industry leaders share their insights on selecting an environmental services contractor, negotiating pricing, and maintaining service levels. Urgent care is often considered a blind product because patients generally lack the formal training necessary to assess the quality of the actual medical services delivered. As a result, satisfaction or dissatisfaction is determined in large …

Urgent Care Solutions for Health Systems to Improve Access

Urgent message: Although the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expands health insurance coverage to millions of previously uninsured, many of the newly insured grapple with lack of access to quality, on-demand care, which leads to increased emergency department use. Urgent care provides a solution for health systems to expand access, reduce the number of unnecessary emergency department visits, and realize the goal of integrated population health management. MICHAEL F. BOYLE, MD, MBA, FACEP Introduction …

Top 3 Rapid Tests Performed at U.S. Urgent Care Centers in 2014

Data from the 2014 Urgent Care Chart Survey of 1,778,075 blinded visits by patients to more than 800 different urgent care clinics, conducted by the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, reveal that the top 3 rapid tests performed at U.S. urgent care centers in 2014 were as follows, in descending order: • Rapid group A Streptococcus test—15.59 million tests • Rapid influenza test—13.91 million tests • Rapid chlamydia test—0.92 million tests The survey’s methodology and …

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus: An Urgent Care Approach

Charis Royal, BS Urgent message: With recent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, being able to quickly and accurately diagnose such diseases is paramount for initiating containment and treatment procedures in a timely manner. Introduction In 2012 a novel coronavirus was discovered in the Arabian Peninsula, with signs and symptoms similar to those of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). This coronavirus was named Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and has infected over …

The Role of Urgent Care in an Integrated Care System: Insights from Intermountain Healthcare

Urgent message: This exclusive interview with Intermountain Medical Group Chief Executive Officer Linda Leckman, MD, illustrates how urgent care can improve access and clinical outcomes while reducing costs for patients in a system that integrates providers, hospitals, and health insurance using a shared electronic medical record and capitated payment. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Introduction In the evolving U.S. health-care system, individual providers, ancillary facilities, hospitals, and payors are joining together in connected systems …

Pharmacists With Prescribing Privileges: A New Class of Medical Practitioner

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, is Practice Management Editor for JUCM, serves on the board of directors of the Urgent Care Association of America, and is Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives for Experity. Urgent message: State boards of pharmacy, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, and large national drugstore chains are pushing for regulatory changes that would enable pharmacists to diagnose medical conditions and prescribe a range of medications, creating a new class of health-care …

The Great Flu Shot Conundrum

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, is Practice Management Editor for JUCM, serves on the Board Directors of the Urgent Care Association of America, and is Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives for Experity. Urgent Message: Flu shots decrease health-care expenses, workplace absenteeism, and lost productivity, so why do most insurers not cover their cost when patients get the shots at urgent care centers? It is time for this practice to change. According to the U.S. Centers for …

Child with Lymphedema of the Neck and Parotid Glands

This image was taken of a 3-year-old boy who presented with history of 3 days of fever and headache and 1 day of diffuse lymphedema of his neck and parotid glands. The area surrounding each parotid gland was tender to palpation. View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis would be.