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Let’s be real: navigating the U.S. healthcare system isn’t just hard for patients—it’s hard for us too. But while we can’t rewrite the rules, we can help patients work within them.
A patient walks into urgent care with chest pain, a head injury, or a bleeding laceration that looks like it’s straight out of a slasher movie—unsure whether they made the right choice by skipping the emergency room.
If you’ve ever stared at a 13-year-old’s immunization record, wondering whether that Tdap vaccine at age 10 means they still need another now, you’re not alone. Tdap—short for tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis—is part of both routine and catch-up immunization schedules. And as with all things immunization-related, the details matter.
Ah, otitis media—the classic ear infection in the middle ear. It may be a bread and butter diagnosis in the pediatric clinic, but its management can be nuanced. Do you treat it now or wait it out? What’s the go-to antibiotic? And when is it time to loop in the ENT? Let’s cut through the noise with a back-to-basics review, plus a few pearls that might just change your approach.
Few things complicate an already challenging resuscitation effort more than a concomitant poisoning or toxic exposure—and unfortunately, this scenario is becoming more common.
Managing dyslipidemia often means going beyond just statins, especially for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), statin intolerance, or persistently high LDL-C levels.
When we last covered the PA Licensure Compact in our November 2023 blog: The Realities of PA Military Life, only two states had adopted the Compact. At the time, my family and I were bracing ourselves for a classic Maine winter. Think snowbanks taller than your car and possible moose sightings on a grocery run.
In the fast pace of urgent care, lacerations are our bread and butter. A few sutures, a tetanus shot, and a cheerful “all set!” send many patients back out the door feeling stitched-up and satisfied. But some of those patients come back—with more than meets the eye. One of the biggest (and most litigious) culprits? Missed glass foreign bodies in lacerations.
School’s out. Summer’s in full swing. The icy pops are frozen, the inflatable flamingos are back in action—unfortunately, so is the seasonal uptick in water-related injuries. From bathtubs to the ocean, any place with standing water deserves a pause, a conversation, and a prevention plan.
Outdoor recreation has exploded in popularity over the last five years. Today, more than 55% of the U.S. population ages six and up participate in activities like hiking, biking, camping, and climbing. While that’s great news for our collective well-being, more people in the wild also means more people getting injured or sick in the wild. So, who helps when things go sideways far away from civilization? Enter the specialty of Wilderness...
As a primary care provider, you’re often the first to catch signs of substance use—and one of the most trusted to help manage it. Urine drug screening (UDS) is one of the tools in your back pocket, but it comes with questions:
The truth is, we’d been wanting to do this for a while.
