A 24-year-old man presents to a primary care clinic with seven days of respiratory symptoms. He initially developed cough, fever, sore throat, and fatigue. His symptoms improved on days 4 and 5, but then worsened in the past 48 hours with recurrent fever and productive green sputum.

Urgent care centers are built on access, efficiency, and rapid diagnostics. For decades, X-ray has been central to that model. Yet many operators are finding that maintaining consistent radiography is becoming increasingly difficult. A nationwide shortage of radiologic technologists has pushed wages upward and made staffing unpredictable. [1] Imaging volumes are often too low to justify the cost of full-time personnel. Reimbursement structures rarely offset the true expense of equipment, inspections, overreads, and service contracts. As a result, X-ray, once a dependable service line, is now one of the most operationally fragile components of urgent care.

It is important to recognize that there is still a strong role for X-ray in centers with consistently high imaging volume or significant orthopedic demand. In those environments, radiography remains essential. The challenge is that radiography alone cannot meet the operational and workforce pressures facing urgent care today. When staffing is unreliable, imaging availability becomes inconsistent, and that inconsistency affects patient flow, provider confidence, and payor relationships.

A 42-year-old female presents to her primary care clinic with intermittent, crampy abdominal pain for four months. The pain typically follows fatty meals, occasionally radiates to her right shoulder, and can last for several hours. She denies fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. Vital signs are normal. On exam, she has mild tenderness to palpation in the right upper quadrant without rebound or guarding. There is no jaundice, and laboratory studies, including AST and ALT, are within normal limits.

For clinicians in urgent care, abdominal pain in reproductive-age patients presents a familiar challenge. Add a positive pregnancy test, and the stakes increase significantly, particularly when diagnostic tools are limited onsite.

In a recent case published in the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine (JUCM), Hello Sono founder Dr. Tatiana Havryliuk demonstrates how transabdominal point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) can be used effectively to confirm an intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) and help avoid unnecessary emergency department transfers.

Discover how point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) transforms the evaluation of pleuritic chest pain and dyspnea. Learn how to detect pneumothorax, identify key lung signs like the lung point, and see why POCUS outperforms X-ray—especially in rural and resource-limited settings.

A 27-year-old male presented to urgent care with a one-week history of intermittent right testicular pain associated with right low back, flank, and right lower quadrant discomfort. He reported a sensation of incomplete bladder emptying after urination and had noted one day of gross hematuria the day prior. He denied fever, dysuria, trauma, or constitutional symptoms. His past medical history was unremarkable.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is transforming how frontline providers diagnose and manage patients. It offers faster answers, improved outcomes, and new streams of revenue. But many clinics miss out on reimbursement due to avoidable gaps in billing infrastructure.

That’s why we created the POCUS Billing Readiness Checklist—a simple guide to help you assess whether your clinic is truly ready to get paid for the scans you're already performing (or planning to start).

A healthy 25-year-old male with no significant past medical history presented to a rural clinic with sudden-onset, sharp right-sided chest pain that began earlier in the day while walking. The pain was pleuritic, but he denied shortness of breath, fever, trauma, or recent illness. On physical exam, his vitals were normal, lung sounds were clear bilaterally, and there was no chest wall tenderness or crepitus. An EKG was performed and found to be normal. With no chest X-ray available onsite, the provider performed a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) of the lungs.

A 72-year-old man with urinary retention was diagnosed in seconds using point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in a primary care clinic, avoiding an ED visit. This case review highlights how bladder scanning—with or without AI—quickly measures post-void residual volume, guides catheterization decisions, and improves patient outcomes. Includes technique tips, evidence, and cost-savings data.