Practice Management
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%) …
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From 2025 to 2050, the world could see more than 39 million deaths that are directly attributable to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Researchers from several global institutions studied 520 million individual records and estimated deaths and illnesses attributable to AMR across 204 countries from 1990 through 2021. As it turns out, deaths from AMR fell more than 50% among children younger than age 5 but increased more than 80% among adults 70 and older, according to …
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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. …
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In a new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, data showed that antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory tract infections (RTIs) were significantly more common in virtual urgent care (UC) settings vs in-person UC settings. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic found that 58% of RTI virtual visits resulted in an antibiotic prescription, while only 43% of in-person visits did. Data included 19,003 visits to virtual UC and 69,189 visits to in-person UC from 2018 through 2022. COVID-19 …
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Researchers studying 718 patients at primary care and urgent care sites found that antibiotics didn’t provide any benefit for patients with a cough caused by an acute lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), as published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Evidence shows that antibiotic prescriptions actually were associated with a small increase in the duration of cough when patients receiving antibiotics were compared to those without. Time until resolution was the same whether the …
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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 …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is raising awareness about the importance of improving antibiotic and antifungal use during US Antibiotic Awareness Week, November 18-24. Through communication strategies, CDC is reinforcing messages to patients and providers to remind them that anytime antibiotics or antifungals are used, they can cause side effects and contribute to antimicrobial resistance. Additionally, the agency is recognizing that health inequities can result from less-than-optimal antibiotic or antifungal prescribing practices, which …
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Urgent message: The treatment of acute otitis media is a common problem throughout healthcare. Many national provider organizations have emphasized the significance of proper diagnosis and treatment is essential for a full, uncomplicated recovery. Jessica M. Crandall, DNP, ARNP-FNP-BC and Misty Schwartz, PhD, RN Citation: Crandall JM, Schwartz M. Improving adherence to clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of acute otitis media in pediatric patients. J Urgent Care Med. 2023;17(11):25-34. Click Here to download the …
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Improving antibiotic stewardship was an industry-wide mandate even before a 2018 study indicated that urgent care appeared to be more likely than other settings to overprescribe for common infections. While the methodologies could be questioned, especially in their take on the nature of urgent care visits, the point was well taken. Since then, urgent care as a whole has sought to improve providers’ prescribing habits more aggressively than ever. The initial awareness campaigns did a …
Read MoreJust 4 years ago, a Research Letter published by JAMA Internal Medicine painted an unflattering picture of the antibiotic prescribing habits in U.S. physician offices, urgent care centers, retail clinics, and emergency rooms.1 Urgent care took its lumps along with other settings—but in response, collectively, also took the issue seriously and set to work on correcting course. In introducing their Antibiotic Stewardship program, The Urgent Care Association and the College of Urgent Care Medicine noted …
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