Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

CDC, Pew Set Agenda for Antibiotic Prescriptions in Outpatient Settings

Reducing the rate of antibiotic resistance—let alone treating patients effectively and efficiently—means prescribing the right drug for the right pathogen at the outset. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that way, so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pew Charitable Trusts and other public health and medical experts to determine how much U.S. outpatient antibiotic use is inappropriate and to set national targets for improving antibiotic prescribing. They found that at least …

CDC Tries to Put the Brakes on Runaway Opioid Use

Up to 20% of patients presenting with noncancer pain walk out of physician offices with a prescription for an opioid. Too many of them become addicts or abuse prescription painkillers, sometimes with deadly results. With its expectation that encounters will be a one-off, urgent care is an especially appealing target for those looking for a quick fix. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants all prescribers to think long and hard before …