Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Too Many Kids With AOM Use Antibiotics For Too Long

A study conducted at 2 pediatric academic healthcare systems resulted in data showing that 75% of antibiotic prescriptions for children with acute otitis media (AOM) were written for durations longer than recommended. As presented in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the researchers focused on 5-day antibiotic prescriptions as the primary outcome and compared them to 7-day and 10-day prescriptions. They also examined treatment failure, recurrence of AOM, hospitalization, and adverse drug events. …

Comparing Urgent Care and Hospital Pneumonia Diagnoses

A retrospective study conducted across 28 urgent care clinics in Utah found an estimated rate of pneumonia overdiagnosis in urgent care clinics of 30%. The authors arrived at the estimate by examining a group of 7,214 patients’ pneumonia diagnoses recorded from January 2019 through December 2020 in the urgent care centers and comparing them with subsequent diagnoses in an emergency department (ED) or hospital. Of the urgent care patients who were later seen in an …

Antibiotic Prescribing in “Gotham City”

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being talked at about antibiotic stewardship. We all realize it’s a problem. And though it’s common practice to blame urgent care providers for the situation, we aren’t uniquely culpable for antibiotic overuse. To anyone paying attention, it’s clear that antibiotic overprescribing in urgent care remains as rampant as crime in Gotham City. And the topic has become exhausting for UC providers, not because we believe it …

CDC, ACP Warn Against Wayward Antibiotic Prescribing

Old habits and the pleadings of sick patients continue to move physicians to prescribe antibiotics for patients who don’t actually need them, according to a new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Physicians. Both are urging physicians to employ antibiotics sparingly during cold and flu season. Antibiotics are prescribed at more than 100 million adult ambulatory care visits every year—including visits to urgent care—but only about half …

Developing Data: January, 2011

In each issue on this page, we report on research from or relevant to the emerging urgent care marketplace. This month, we begin delving into a report whose top-line data made headlines around the country recently. The article, Many Emergency Department Visits Could Be Managed at Urgent Care Centers and Retail Clinics,1 went beyond the conclusion stated in its title, offering a snapshot of how patients exercise their freedom to choose among those three settings. …