Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Urgent Care Providers, Be Aware: STDs Are More Common Than Ever

Despite ready availability of condoms—as well as information through providers, public outreach campaigns, and the ubiquitous internet, cases of sexually transmitted disease reported in the U.S. reached an all-time high last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Combined reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis totaled more than 1.8 million in 2015, according to the CDC’s annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report. Sadly, those numbers are probably lower than the true …

Antibiotics Week: A Chance to Attract—and Protect—New Patients

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House are working together to foster more responsible use of antibiotics in all healthcare settings by promoting Get Smart About Antibiotics Week, November 14–20. The CDC estimates 2 million Americans become infected with an antibiotic-resistant germ every year, meaning illness that could previously have been treated with a standard antibiotic may land your patients in the hospital (or worse; 23,000 patients die every year from …

CDC: Men Should Wait 6 Months to Have Unprotected Sex After Possible Zika Exposure

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has again revised its recommendations on how long men who could have been exposed to the Zika virus should wait before trying to conceive, or to have unprotected sex at all. The CDC now says man should wait 6 months—up from 8 weeks—before having sex without a condom even if they have no symptoms. The new guidance is intended to minimize the likelihood of transmitting the virus before …

CDC: Sexual Transmission of Zika Possible Even Without Symptoms

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has again updated guidance related to protecting the public from Zika virus, saying there’s evidence that a man infected with Zika can sexually transmit the virus to a female partner even if he has no symptoms. It cites the case of a woman who had unprotected sex with a man who’d recently returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic, where mosquito-born Zika has been confirmed. The …

Start Priming the Pump for Flu Shot Programs

It may seem early, but September is actually the ideal time to start promoting influenza immunization programs in your urgent care center. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all patients 6-months-old and above receive a flu shot by the end of October. In addition to traditional promotional channels like local advertising and social media, don’t forget the value of good old-fashioned human contact; let patients who come in for everyday complaints that …

Abdominopelvic Pain, Part 1: Approach to Men in the Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: Abdominopelvic pain is one of the most complex issues encountered in the urgent care settings. Clinicians must make evaluations and decisions rapidly, and it is imperative that they make the appropriate diagnosis to prevent negative outcomes. How this article helps you: assists you in detecting potentially life-threatening problems. Introduction Abdominopelvic pain is something that every urgent care provider can relate to. Although urgent care statistics are not readily available, the Centers for Disease …

Urgent Care Enters the Zika Fray in South Florida

Baptist Health South Florida is encouraging patients who are concerned they may have been exposed to Zika virus, but who do not have symptoms, to visit the system’s urgent care centers in order to prevent clutter in its emergency rooms. That news comes on the heels of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adding another location for pregnant women to avoid in Florida, along with suggestions that they and their sexual partners consider postponing …

Urgent Care Needs to Prepare for Zika Visits

We told you earlier that residents of Miami have been infected with Zika virus transmitted by local mosquitos, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to dispatch an emergency response team and revise its guidance on testing and prevention. Regardless of how likely or unlikely further domestic exposure may be, media attention and summer travel plans are likely to drive more patients with concerns about Zika to urgent centers. As such, operators are advised …

Zika Mosquitos Make Landfall in Florida

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended its travel warning for pregnant women to one area within Miami, as 14 people there have contracted Zika virus after being bitten by virus-carrying mosquitos locally. The first four cases were reported July 29, but that number more than tripled in just three days. Florida is the first state to report local transmission of Zika via mosquito. The CDC maintains there is no evidence of widespread …

Common Symptoms Could Lead Patients with Elizabethkingia anophelis to Urgent Care

Sudden fever, shortness of breath, chills…just the kind of “funk” that leads countless patients to the urgent care center. Well-informed providers are learning to look a little closer at such patients, though, with 21 people having died this year already from a usually obscure bacterial infection. Elizabethkingia anophelis is marked by symptoms often synonymous with the common cold, though its outcomes can be far more serious. Scores of cases have been reported in Illinois, Michigan, …