Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

COVID-19: New Zealand’s Urgent Care Story

Stephen L. Adams, MBChB, FRNZCUC Like the rest of the world, New Zealand (and more particularly its healthcare system) has been changed, perhaps irrevocably, by COVID-19. Despite a relatively small direct effect on the population (0.06% infected, half of which were identified and isolated at border) with 0.0004% deaths1 (including one physician), the effects on primary care have been substantial. THE BEGINNING New Zealand clinicians were first notified of the Wuhan cluster in January 2020. …

Will Urgent Care Visits return to ‘Normal’ as the Pandemic Turns Endemic?

In spite of the fact that urgent care was overlooked as an essential partner in the fight against COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic, the virus had a major impact on the complaints that drove patients to visit an urgent care center. In fact, according to JUCM research, most of 2019’s top 5 chief complaints fell by at least half as a proportion of all urgent care visits. COVID-19, which was essentially a …

Return to Sports in the COVID-19 Era: A Clinical Review

Urgent message: The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic has changed sports as we know it. Returning athletes back to sport safely continues to be widely debated among physicians in cardiology, primary care, infectious disease, and sports medicine. The return-to-play process after a COVID-19 infection will depend on the severity of their infection, duration of symptoms in the context of any concerning past medical history, and/or family history. Brian Harvey, DO and Natalie Stork, MD CASE PRESENTATION A …

Abstracts in Urgent Care – October 2021

Duration of UTI Treatment in Men Acute Respiratory Illness in Children Isopropyl Alcohol for Acute Nausea in Adults Neurological Events and Metronidazole Prescribing Do the Modified Sgarbossa Criteria Offer Advantages Over the Original? Safety of a Second COVID-19 Vaccination Dose in Patients Who Had a Reaction to the First How Long Should We Treat UTI in Men? Take-Home Point: In afebrile men with UTI symptoms, a 7-day course of ciprofloxacin or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole was noninferior to …

The Unvaccinated Aren’t the Enemy

Taylor wore her embroidered sorority sweatshirt and a mask below her nose when she came to see me. She was 19 and had just finished her freshman year at the local university. Her story was cliché, as well: cough, runny nose, and sore throat “that wouldn’t go away.” She’d been sick for 8 days and she’d come in to get antibiotics. This isn’t a story about antibiotic stewardship, though. “Have you been tested or vaccinated …

A 31-Year-Old with Cough and Decreased Breath Sounds

The patient is a 31-year-old woman who presents with new-onset cough and decreased breath sounds to the lower lobes. View the image taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.

Abstracts in Urgent Care – September 2021

Cooling Pain from Digital Nerve Blocks Safety of Corticosteroids in Children Predicting the Course of Pediatric CAP Is Tranexamic Acid Helpful for Epistaxis? Drug Therapy for Sciatica Imaging May Not Correlate with Lumbar Pain COVID-19 Vaccination in Lactating Patients Applying Ice Reduces Pain from Digital Nerve Blocks Take-home point: Use of an ice pack applied prior to the administration of a digital nerve block reduces pain from local anesthetic injection Citation: Rasooli F, Sotoodehnia M, …

What the #$%^ is happening with EM Coding and Reimbursement?! – Part II

In the May issue of JUCM, we outlined what we were seeing with E/M coding levels utilizing the new AMA guidelines vs 2020 and 2019 levels. As COVID-19 visits steadily declined from January through June, we began to see a return to more “normal” urgent care visits. That was short-lived. July’s sharp increase in visit volumes was again driven by COVID-19! Here’s the update we promised. As a reminder, we saw E/M levels decline in …

Active COVID-19 Infection Is Indicated by WBC ≤7.0 and PLT ≤200 at Presentation

Yijung Russell, MD; Casey Collier, MD; Steve Christos, DO; and Shu B. Chan MD, MS Citation: Russell Y, Collier C, Christos S, Chan SB. Active COVID-19 infection is indicated by WBC 7.0 and PLT 200 at presentation. J Urgent Care Med. 2021;15(10):35-38. Introduction The impact coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has had on individuals, businesses, and governments is unprecedented in many ways. Though widespread and frequent screening is recommended for better containment,1 limited availability of …

Breakthrough COVID Infection in a Vaccinated person from a Possible Vaccinated Exposure

Sergio Ramoa MD, MS Urgent Message: With variant COVID-19 mutations, incomplete herd immunity, and less restrictive government regulatory statues, it is important to remain vigilant with continued testing and prevention even with a full vaccinated history. Introduction In the United States, cases of COVID-19 have passed 32,000,000 and 570,000 for deaths. 141,000,000 cases and 3,000,000 deaths have afflicted the world. Approximately 9.6% of infected individuals are hospitalized and a majority have mild to moderate symptoms.1 …