12-Year-Old With Facial Trauma

12-Year-Old With Facial Trauma

A 12- year-old male presents to urgent care with his mother complaining of facial pain.  The patient experienced a trip-and-fall accident at home. He landed on a carpeted floor and now complains of facial pain. View the image taken (occipitomental/Waters view) and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the following page.

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53-Year-Old With Spreading Rash

53-Year-Old With Spreading Rash

A 53-year-old man presents to urgent care concerned about a spreading rash underneath his arms for the past 3 weeks. He initially thought it was an allergic reaction to a new deodorant, but the rash persisted after stopping the deodorant. The rash is not itchy. The patient has a history of type 2 diabetes. On examination, a broad, well-demarcated, thin, scaly plaque is seen extending from the lateral chest over the axilla to the upper …

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Using Urgent-Care-Based Telemedicine to Increase Primary Care Referrals: A Quality Improvement Project

Using Urgent-Care-Based Telemedicine to Increase Primary Care Referrals: A Quality Improvement Project

Urgent Message: A quality improvement project demonstrated increased referral rates to primary care from an urgent care telemedicine service line for those who did not have a primary care provider. Brianna Woodruff, DNP, ARNP, FNP-C; Khara’ A. Jefferson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, CHC Citation: Woodruff B, Jefferson K. Using Urgent-Care-Based Telemedicine to Increase Primary Care Referrals: A Quality Improvement Project. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(5): 40-47. Key words: Effective care, primary care referral, telemedicine, urgent …

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What’s In It For Me?

What’s In It For Me?

Do you remember what it was like in the summer of 2020? If that summer had a theme, it would have been “overlooked.” Everyone was jumping up and down and waving their arms to get the attention of suppliers, government agencies, payers, diagnostic companies, and pharmaceutical companies so we could meet the needs of the patients literally lining up in front of our centers. We had to fight for every single thing we got, and …

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Case Report of Renal Cell Carcinoma Presenting to Urgent Care with Indolent Back Pain: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Case Report of Renal Cell Carcinoma Presenting to Urgent Care with Indolent Back Pain: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Urgent message: Although back pain is often due to benign etiologies, symptoms of progressive pain, weakness, and near syncope in one patient ultimately led to a diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma. Citation:  Hamazaspyan A, Kedia A, Weinstock M. Case Report of Renal Cell Carcinoma Presenting to Urgent Care with Indolent Back Pain: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. J Urgent Care Med. 2024;18(5): 17-22. Anahit Hamazaspyan DO; Ayush Kedia DO; Michael Weinstock MD Abstract Introduction Back …

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Updates on Sports Related Concussion from the 6th International Conference on Concussion in Sport

Updates on Sports Related Concussion from the 6th International Conference on Concussion in Sport

Over the last 20 years, the Concussion in Sport Group has met periodically to develop statements guiding the assessment and management of sports related concussions. The most recent meeting of the group took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in October 2022 and produced updated and freely available, evidence-informed tools to assist in the detection and assessment of sports related concussion (SRC). These tools include: the Concussion Recognition Tool-6 (CRT6); Sport Concussion Assessment Tool-6 (SCAT6); Child SCAT6; …

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Our Success in Urgent Care is Defined by How We Play Our ‘Greatest Hits’

Our Success in Urgent Care is Defined by How We Play Our ‘Greatest Hits’

Recently one evening, I meandered into a bar on iconic 6th Street in Austin, Texas— America’s epicenter for live music. Venues throughout the district feature free, live performances every night from some of the nation’s most talented musicians. On that particular evening, however, the sounds from one electric guitar coming from a small stage in a dark room cut through the humid air and grabbed my attention. I wandered in, found a seat at the …

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Robust Urgent Care De Novo Growth Continues

Robust Urgent Care De Novo Growth Continues

The urgent care industry continues to add de novo centers, according to data from Experity and National Urgent Care Realty. Although de novo growth slowed in 2023 by 5%, 2023 de novos are still 16% higher than 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. In addition to continued overall growth of the industry, the data indicates structural changes in who is opening de novos. A “de novo” urgent care refers to a center that did not previously …

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How to Survive a Payer Review

How to Survive a Payer Review

Benjamin Barlow, MD; Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC One of the biggest challenges facing urgent care operators is increased scrutiny in the form of payer reviews. More clients than ever are facing these administrative and financial burdens. Compounding the issue is that urgent care clinicians often struggle to understand coding guidelines and how to document in a way that shows their medical decision making, which is vital in care and in payer reviews. Prepayment …

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