Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

As Travel Opens Up, Opportunities to Offer COVID-19 Tests Could Be Lucrative

Urgent care has had it tough during the pandemic, but the travel industry has faced unprecedented challenges as Americans hunkered down to avoid exposure to the COVID-19 virus. To this day, individuals in certain professions (teachers, for example) are barred from returning to work until they’ve quarantined after visiting certain states. Others, however, are facing slightly loosened restrictions, such as being able to travel as long as they can provide a negative test result. American …

New Quest Diagnostics Data Show Drug Use Among Workers Remains High

It may come as no surprise to urgent care providers who offer occupational medicine services such as drug testing, but the overall rate of positive drug tests remains high across the board in the U.S. workforce according to new data from Quest Diagnostics. While fewer workers are testing positive for opiate use, results indicating use of cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana kept the positive test rate at 4.2%. That’s the same as it was in 2016—which …

Foundation of Occupational Medicine in the Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: Much has been written about the integration of occupational medicine into urgent care practice. However, doing so successfully requires consideration of many important factors. This is the first in a series of articles that will examine occupational medicine in the urgent care setting from the financial and practice management viewpoint, with the aim of guiding the urgent care decision-maker and practitioner in the best practices of business and clinical occupational medicine practice. Max …

Urgent Care Growth Will Continue, Says New Research

Urgent care is a good fit for evolving healthcare marketplaces, ensuring continuing growth for years to come—from $23.5 billion in 2013 to a projected $30.5 billion by 2020, according to a new report from Transparency Market Research (TMR). We’ve told you here that urgent care has been shown to be a popular model for people in the millennial generation (often defined as those born between the mid-1980s and early 2000s), but TMR points out that …

Urgent Care Occupational Medicine Efforts Should Focus on the Public Sector

Over two-thirds of urgent care centers offer a blend of occupational medicine services (generally defined as treatment of workers compensation injuries, conducting physicals for compliance or fitness for duty, and substance abuse testing), according to the Urgent Care Association.1 One challenge for those that do is that the overall incidence of workplace injuries has declined significantly this century, due to an overall shift from a manufacturing to a service and information economy, the offshoring/outsourcing of …

School’s In for Occ Med Providers

Urgent care operators who offer occupational medicine services have gotten very adept at making their case for blue collar worksites, as well as corporate offices. Now public schools are catching on to its benefits—as in the Appleton WI area, where employee health clinics are saving districts big money while providing efficient care when and where it’s needed most. The Kimberly, Appleton, and Neenah public schools are among the districts that have opened clinics run by …

On-site Clinics: Not Just for Big Business Anymore

On-site medical facilities are common in manufacturing operations and even some larger corporate offices. However, smaller businesses are starting to look at skyrocketing healthcare costs and realizing there may be real benefits in having a provider on the premises, as well. One car dealership in Albuquerque, NM has seen its health costs and absenteeism go down since bringing in a provider to check out workers who aren’t feeling well, administer flu shots, and help employees …

UCA Lobbies for Driver Sleep Apnea Screening

The Urgent Care Association (UCA) has filed comments with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), supporting annual screening of transportation workers diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). UCA’s position is in agreement with the FMCSA’s and the Medical Review Board’s contention that a driver with OSA should be recertified annually, regardless of whether he or she is undergoing treatment for the condition. Drivers who do say they’re being treated would have to demonstrate compliance …

Why an Arizona Measles Outbreak is an Occupational Medicine Concern

Arizona is home to the largest measles outbreak in the U.S., currently. That by itself does not warrant headlines, but health officials there have traced all 22 cases since May to a single detention center. The importance to urgent care operators—especially those that provide occupational health services—is that the outbreak is blamed, in part, one the refusal of some workers at the Eloy Detention Center to get vaccinated. Detainees there have all been vaccinated at …

Telemedicine Dips a Toe in the Deep End of the Urgent Care Pool

FastMed Urgent Care has become the biggest urgent care provider in the country to offer patients telemedicine services. The company has partnered with TouchCare to start taking mobile video appointments in North Carolina, via smartphone or tablet. If all goes well there, FastMed plans to offer similar service in Arizona and Texas later this year. The company says it has a distinct advantage over virtual-only services because patients can start with a remote visit but …

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