Summer 2025
President's Message
Spring is squarely upon us and depending on where you are in our country, we are experiencing the bounty of this lovely season. We heralded March with SPUC’s 11th Annual Conference at Children’s Mercy Research Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. The program content was varied, and rich. The poster submissions were of superior quality, and more posters were presented than in years past. Read more…
Collaboration, Camaraderie, Commitment
These are the words that really capture what the Society for Pediatric Urgent Care (SPUC) is all about. What started as a simple weekly conference call among a handful of leaders in pediatric urgent care has grown into something truly amazing.
We knew we needed to collaborate because there had to be others out there with the same goals. We felt a strong sense of camaraderie (and sometimes, commiseration), knowing there were others facing the same challenges. Read more…
The Section on Urgent Care Medicine (SOUCM) has been actively involved with Quality Improvement (QI) projects. The section applied for a grant to fund a QI project on antibiotic stewardship in urgent care. That project is complete, and the leaders are currently submitting the work for publication. Currently, members of the section are involved in the AAP QI collaborative Better Assessment and Responses to Croup in Kids (BARCK) to improve care for croup. Thanks to the leadership of the SOUCM, participation in this collaborative was open to our membership. Read more…
Barbecue sauce, fun and “Fowling” (football + bowling) were on the menu at SPUC’s 11th Annual Conference in Kansas City. It was an excellent showcase of the important work and achievements for which SPUC’s members continue to accomplish. The event was also packed with superb presentations by experts from Children’s Mercy and across the country. Read more…
Dr. O'Connor Receives the 2025 Mike Moran Scholar Award
Mary C. O’Connor MD FAAP received the 2025 Mike Moran Scholar Award at SPUC’s 11th Annual Conference in Kansas City in March.
The award is presented annually to a pediatric resident or fellow in training in the field of pediatric urgent care (MD/DO, NP, PA), with the goal of enhancing clinical research in pediatric urgent care. Read more…
Little Spuds Pediatrics, PLLC
Professional Designation(s)/Title:
Doctor of Nursing Practice/Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner – Acute Care
How long have you been a member of SPUC?
Three years.
Why did you choose the Pediatric Urgent Care field?
I really enjoy caring for infants, children, and teens in urgent care because it allows me to help families get pediatric expert urgent care within my county. Read more…
The PA/ NP Pediatric Urgent Care Fellowship, which began in 2016, is a collaboration between Virginia Health Sciences (VHS), Children’s Specialty Group (CSG), and Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD). CHKD is a free-standing Level I Pediatric Trauma Center in southeastern Virginia and has three Pediatric Urgent Care Centers located throughout Hampton Roads, in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and Newport News. These busy clinics treat more than 104,000 patients a year. Read more…
AI is rapidly becoming a tangible reality in healthcare, offering clinicians promising tools for enhancing diagnostic accuracy, streamline workflows, and improving patient outcomes. This potential is crucial for common, challenging conditions like urinary tract infections (UTI), which alone account for approximately eight million office/emergency visits and one million hospitalizations annually in the US. However, inaccuracies and delays in UTI diagnosis lead to increased morbidity and mortality. Read more…
Background and rationale
Functional constipation is extremely common in children. Diagnosis of constipation as a cause of abdominal pain should be based on history and physical exam. Abdominal x-rays have been shown to have limited value in the diagnosis of children with constipation and are not recommended to diagnosis constipation. Despite this, up to 70% of pediatric patients diagnosed with constipation still receive an abdominal x-ray. Read more…
History
A 13-month-old previously healthy female was brought to an Urgent Care clinic by her parents for fever and concern about a possible foreign body ingestion. Three weeks prior, the mother recalled hearing choking sounds while cleaning another room. The infant recovered quickly at the time, but over the following week developed daily vomiting and a notable aversion to solid foods. The vomiting improved, but she continued to refuse solids—an unusual pattern given her previously normal diet. Read more…
A previously healthy 5-year-old girl presents to clinic accompanied by her mother for evaluation of a persistent cough ongoing for three weeks. Over the past three days, she has developed subjective fevers, watery diarrhea, and facial swelling. Her mother reports that the cough is severe and comes in fits, causing the child to turn red in the face. The child has no significant past medical history and has not been seen by a primary care provider regularly. Her immunizations were reported to be up to date until two years of age. Read more…
Please visit our “Reading Corner” – a helpful resource to keep us updated on the most relevant and timely journal articles, new guidelines, and editorials on Pediatric medicine. This edition we highlight some of our academic work.
Complimentary CME Webinars
Members! FREE CME and MOC II for Bi-Weekly Webinars
These popular educational webinars feature experts in the field of pediatric urgent care and offer free CME and MOC Part II credits per calendar year upon achieving 60% or better on the post-webinar surveys.
See upcoming topics and on-demand content here.
SPUC Newsletter Editors
Traci Downs-Bouchard MD FAAP
Aaron Maki MD PhD FAAP
Contributors
Sunil Bochare MD
Swati Mahajan MD
SPUC Group Billing
Use SPUC’s Group Billing to streamline the application and payment processes.
Get a 10% or 15% Discount on Dues: Receive a 10% discount on member dues in the group billing program for groups of 34 members or fewer for your practice or institution. Groups of 35 or more members will receive a 15% discount.
The Society will send one comprehensive renewal notice to include all the SPUC members in your practice or institution. Contact Membership Director Greg Leasure to establish group billing for your members.
Members may post career opportunities at no charge. Non-members may post job opportunities for a fee of $500 for 90 days.
Click HERE for details.
Post, follow, comment, converse
- SPUC has migrated to a new listserv product that is more user-friendly for our members called Simplelists.
- As a SPUC member, the email address you provided for your member record has already been transferred to the new listserv forum.
- You will receive a confirmation email containing a link which you must click to confirm that you have become an active listserv subscriber.
- Log in to the Member section and navigate to the seventh bullet ‘Listserv’.
- Review your profile. Here you may also make changes to the default settings such as how often you’d like to receive postings or unsubscribe.
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