Practice Management
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked state health officials to keep up with flu surveillance over the summer to watch for human-to-human spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus, according to CIDRAP. Flu surveillance generally wanes during the warmer months when there are fewer seasonal flu virus cases. H5N1 vaccines exist, but the nation is far from ready for a full-scale national vaccine program should the virus become a widespread health …
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Urgent Message: Patients discharged from an urgent care clinic with tachycardia were found to have significantly higher odds of return visits to the urgent care and emergency department as well as higher odds of being admitted to the hospital within 7 days compared to non-tachycardic patients. Vitoria Regina Nunes Maia, MD; Ryan Loh, PhD; Michael Weinstock, MD; Lindsey E. Fish, MD Citation: Maia VRN, Loh R, Weinstock M, Fish L. Return Visits and Hospitalization Rates …
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Urgent Message: Location and accessibility are keys to success for any urgent care. Operators must avoid common pitfalls when evaluating a site for their next venture. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, is President of Experity Consulting and is Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Citation: Ayers, A. Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Urgent Care Site Selection. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(9): 22-25 Experience tells us that friendly service, competent providers, short wait …
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Roger Hicks, MD I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California, where, like numerous other parts of the world, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly routine occurrences. The “hot days” are hotter and more abundant, and the droughts are more severe. In turn, this has precipitated more wildfires, which lead to problematic smoke and hazardous air quality. When I opened my urgent care (UC) clinic 24 years ago, I never thought …
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International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes—maintained by the World Health Organization and published in the United States by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—standardize the categorization and reporting of patient diagnoses. Currently, U.S. healthcare operators use the ICD-10 edition. The analysis above examines 2023 urgent care visits logged by users of Experity’s electronic medical record, revealing that 28,686 diagnosis codes were documented in urgent care patient medical records. While it’s logical to conclude …
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Urgent Message: Patients commonly present with respiratory symptoms in the urgent care setting and not infrequently complain of some degree of shortness of breath—or dyspnea. It is critical for clinicians to have comfort with the clinical assessment and appropriate use of diagnostic resources for the dyspneic patient. Identifying patients requiring immediate emergency department referral is an important skill. Evan Price, DO; Eric Patten, MD; Shakil Hossain, DO; Michael Weinstock, MD Citation: Price E, Patten E, …
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Urgent Message: With hyperabduction and hyperextension of the thumb, the ulnar collateral ligament may be stretched or torn, or may avulse a segment of bone from its insertion point. Radiographic imaging of suspected “gamekeeper’s thumb” must be obtained to evaluate for an associated fracture, which may change the decision for conservative vs surgical management. Omar Jafry, MS-3; W. Bradley Strauch, MD Citation: Jafry O, Strauch WB. Urgent Care Evaluation and Management Of Injury to the …
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Urgent Message: Patients may present to an urgent care facility with intraoral angioedema, a life-threatening emergency that requires referral to an emergency department in any case with rapid progression or concerns for airway involvement. This case report describes angioedema from olanzapine, an antipsychotic prescription drug. Chantelle Petterson, BDS, Benjamin Fu, MD, BDSc (HONS), MPhil, FRACDS (OMS) Citation: Petterson C, Fu B. Intraoral Angioedema After Olanzapine Overdose: A Case Report. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(9):34-36 …
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I like to think that I usually have a pretty good read on Urgent Care, but I am currently mystified by something and need your help. For as long as I can remember, everyone in Urgent Care has chanted a common refrain: “We need a seat at the table!” In the beginning, we were too small to make enough noise to be heard and way, way too tight on funds to even think about hiring …
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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a surge in measles cases, including 57 cases associated with a migrant shelter in Chicago, Illinois, according to a new CDC report. It previously recorded 97 confirmed cases in the first quarter of 2024. It’s a significant uptick when compared to the average of 5 cases during the first quarters of 2020-2023. Almost all recent cases were among the unvaccinated. Among the World Health …
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