bnapolitano, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

PrEP—Still Controversial, but New Data Validate the Public Health Benefit

Pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV infection (PrEP) has yet to gain traction in urgent care centers—even among operators who recognize the public health benefit. Some have moral qualms about PrEP, believing that offering an added layer of protection encourages high-risk behavior among those already at the greatest risk (namely, men who have sex with men [MSM], heterosexually active men and women, and people who inject drugs). Others are concerned about reimbursements and the complexities of the …

A 47-Year-Old Male with Chronic Wrist Pain and No Recent Trauma

The patient is a 47-year-old man with chronic wrist pain. He denies any recent trauma, but reports the pain has gotten worse over the past several days. He is unable to pinpoint exactly how long ago he first noticed the pain. View the image taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be.

Listen to Millennials: They’ll Tell You How to Reach Them

It may seem deceptively simple, but the fact is that millennials (generally, Americans born between 1981 and 1996) tend to approach their business dealings—which includes healthcare choices, in their view—from a tech-savvy perspective because they’re the first generation to grow up with easy access to computers, and the internet specifically. That goes down to how they make decisions on which healthcare settings to visit when they or their families (yes, millennials are even having children) …

Urgent Care Can Help Curb the Measles Explosion by Educating Patients and Parents

The United States passed an unfortunate milestone this week when the number of confirmed measles cases reached 1,000 (and surpassed it actually, to 1,001). It’s the worst outbreak since 1992 and comes 19 years after measles was declared “eliminated” in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports there have been 61 new cases since May 27 alone. Recognizing that public appeals to get vaccinated were falling on deaf ears too often, …

Health Systems Get the Picture: Urgent Care Can Help Them Strengthen Their Brand

Urgent care has been heralded for its patient-friendly (many would even say consumer-friendly) approach to providing quality care. Patients respond well to it because it’s such a contrast to what they’ve become accustomed to: long waits, brusk treatment, and generally feeling like they’re being rushed through a very important and personal experience. Having seen how well the new approach works, however, more traditional healthcare facilities are now jumping on the consumerism bandwagon. Some health systems …

Make-Believe Care Can Foster Real—and Lasting—Patient Relationships

Urgent care centers are busy places. Clinical staff, in particular, have their work cut out for them when it comes to providing fast, quality care on a moment’s notice. Sometimes, though, making extra time for people who don’t need care can have long-lasting benefits—for that individual, their family, and the urgent care center. eMedical Urgent Care in Berkeley Heights, NJ, for one, seems to have embraced that notion. When the town threw a spring block …

Quality Drives the Decision When Patients Choose Urgent Care Over a Retail Clinic

Every patient covets convenience and speed when they make choices about where to seek immediate care. Urgent care and retail clinics both offer those attributes. Just as much (if not more), though, patients want to know they’re going to get the quality of care they need—and that’s where they see a difference between retail and urgent care, according to a new study from WD Partners. The research actually compared those two segments along with primary …

Want to Drum Up More Occ Med Business? You Need to Educate Prospective Clients!

For urgent care operators who offer occupational medicine services, the value of those services is self-evident. Likewise, businesses that already count themselves as occ med clients are likely to recognize the benefits for their employees and their own operations. So, where’s the disconnect for those businesses who “don’t need” an occ med provider? The answer may be that they simply don’t get it, if an article posted recently by Personnel Today is any indication. “Many …

Why Employee Feedback Doesn’t Always Result in Improved Performance

Urgent message: Despite conventional wisdom, extensive research has shown that giving feedback at work—ostensibly to foster learning and improved performance—often has the opposite effect. The challenge for urgent care leaders, therefore, becomes learning to instead recognize excellent outcomes, and then nurture and reinforce the behaviors that led to them. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. When …

Does Telemedicine Encourage Overprescribing—or Provide Crucial Access Where It’s Lacking?

Telemedicine is a hot topic in urgent care circles these days. Some industry leaders herald it as a new way to reach patients and to extend an operation’s reach; skeptics express concern that it’s an obstacle to building a healthy provider–patient relationship and that it facilitates overprescribing. While some of this boils down to a difference of opinion, evidence is mounting that both arguments have merit. A new study out of the University of Pittsburgh …