Practice Management
As the 2018–19 influenza season peaks in the United States, public health officials and academic experts are pleading with patients to stay away from the emergency room if they have flu symptoms—and instead head to their nearest urgent care center. The Rhode Island Department of Health, for one, issued a statement singling out urgent care as the ideal setting for flu testing and treatment, to avoid both long waits and high costs in the ED …
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There are roughly 22,000 more nurse practitioners in the United States than there were a year ago—and new data from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners indicate the number will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, further suggesting there could be massive growth opportunities in urgent care. Right now, 24% of current NPs say they belong to a private practice; 14% work in hospital outpatient clinics, with another 12% in inpatient hospital units; 8% …
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The latest Benchmarking Report from the Urgent Care Association shows 8% growth in the urgent care industry over 2017, continuing an unbroken record of year-over-year growth and confirming that more people than ever are hungry for on-demand, affordable care. It also indicates that urgent care operations have been successful in adapting their offerings to fit the evolving needs of the patient population—and doing so with increasing efficiency, at that. The 2018 Benchmarking Report notes that …
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) established its TSA Pre program to give air travelers a chance to lessen waiting time while maintaining federal rules designed to ensure safe flights. That’s not too far removed from urgent care’s mission of providing excellent medical care without waiting for days to see a primary care physician, and without the hours-long wait and exorbitant cost of the emergency room. As such, it makes sense that when the TSA rolled …
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Urgent message: The life of an urgent care physician entails having compassion for patients, but to prevent the very real phenomenon of physician burnout, compassion should start with yourself. 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. We’ve all heard the announcement on the airline, “Before assisting other passengers, please secure your own oxygen first.” Yet, physicians and …
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Patients may sometimes be inclined to look at a medical bill and envision their doctor sliding behind the wheel of their brand-new Bentley at the end of a shift. We know that’s not exactly how it works, but now a new study in Health Affairs presents an academic approach to quantifying that fact. It suggests the growth in private insurance costs lies more with hospital prices than it does the cost of the physician’s time. …
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Some 25% of nurses have reported being assaulted by a patient or a patient’s family member while on the job, according to a study published in the American Journal of Nursing. Risk is greatest in the emergency, geriatric, and psychiatric settings—all of which overlap with the urgent care patient population. Now The Joint Commission has issued a report that offers advice on de-escalating tense situations that could turn violent in a flash. Quick Safety, Issue …
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Many parents opt to bring young athletes who’ve taken a blow to the head to an urgent care center instead of the emergency room or the pediatrician, especially if they’re concerned about excessive waits. As such, you should be aware of a new study out of the University of Buffalo that suggests a supervised aerobic exercise regimen spurs faster recovery in adolescents who’ve sustained a concussion while playing a sport. Researchers followed 103 subjects between …
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Urgent care centers as a whole go to great lengths to ensure their locations and facilities are accessible to all patients, regardless of any special needs they may have. It can be easy to overlook the employers’ responsibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to also provide accommodations that allow employees to do their jobs. One need look no further than a lawsuit in Virginia to be reminded, however. The case of a healthcare …
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Americans who receive primary care get significantly more high-value care, with better healthcare access and overall experience, than patients without primary care, according to a new study publised online by the Journal of the American Medical Association. For purposes of the study, primary care was defined as the provider “you usually go if you are sick or need advice about your health,” not including the emergency room. The researchers considered 39 clinical quality measures and …
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