Practice Management
In October, we shared the story of of a white mother who said an urgent care center refused to believe the little black girl with her was her daughter, despite her insistence that she had in fact adopted the girl; consequently, the girl was refused care and the urgent care center received a ton of negative attention. Now another urgent care center has been caught up in case on the flipside—treating a child who was …
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Are whistleblowers bottom feeders who betray their employers to make a buck, or crusaders for the public good, responsible for bringing to light corporate or government malfeasance? Whichever your answer, the fact is that whistleblower lawsuits, to which urgent care operations are clearly not immune, take a massive toll on both the whistleblower/complainant and the defendant in the suit. The majority of cases involve healthcare, with Medicare fraud being an especially rich field (probably not …
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As many as 2.1 million United States veterans will be able drop into any approved urgent care center that’s convenient to them whenever they need to, without prior authorization, under new regulations proposed by the Department of Veterans Affairs this week. The option to see private physicians, including urgent care providers, would apply to any vets who would have to wait more than 20 days or who would have to drive 30 minutes or more …
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Urgent care veterans, insurers, and certainly any patient who has ever visited both have been saying this for a long time, but a new study out of Vanderbilt University Medical Center confirms that freestanding emergency rooms are likely to charge more (sometimes a lot more) than urgent care centers for the same services. The study, newly published in The Journal of Emergency Medicine, uncovered certain cost characteristics of freestanding EDs that had been converted from …
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Urgent message: Patients who have had recent surgical procedures may present to urgent care centers for reasons ranging from seeking reassurance to presentation of life-threatening complications. Tracey Quail Davidoff, MD Introduction Patients often experience complications—or, at least as often, fear they’re experiencing complications—after a surgical procedure. While the surgeon is often the best person for them to consult, this may not be possible for a variety of reasons. Outpatient surgical centers are opening almost at …
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Urgent message: Being an aggressive founder who is willing to take risks is invaluable when it comes to starting and growing a business. However, after that business becomes established, it’s essential to transition into a new role as a leader so those same traits that helped start the business don’t also ruin it. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care Leaving behind the relative safety of working as a …
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Urgent message: Patient histories can be helpful in guiding the examination and raising red flags for possible diagnosis. However, it is essential to resist the urge to accept a patient’s self-diagnosis at face value. Katlin F. Mattson, M3 and Shailendra Saxena, MD Case Presentation A 65-year-old female with a history of metastatic endometrial cancer, COPD, and asthma presented with increasing shortness of breath. Four days prior, the patient had undergone a chest wall …
Read MoreThe much-discussed shortage in primary care physicians isn’t going to get any better over the coming decades. In fact, it’s probably going to get a lot worse—and urgent care is likely to play a significant role in mitigating the risk for the U.S. population, according to a new report from UnitedHealthGroup.1 The problem isn’t that fewer physicians are committing to primary care as a career choice; their ranks are actually expected to grow by 6% …
Read MoreWhat is the best way to get my practitioners credentialed with various insurance companies and networks? It is frustrating to try and navigate this convoluted process. I am asked by each insurance company to complete a mound of paperwork and collect a stack of supporting documents for each practitioner. Then I wait months for approval notifications and effective dates. As a result, we end up losing some patients because they want to be treated at …
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Case A 55-year-old man presents to urgent care with 3 hours of epigastric pain which began gradually and is constant. He has associated diaphoresis and minimal dyspnea. There is family history of hypertension and high cholesterol. Personal medical history is significant for diabetes mellitus and hypertension. The patient reports that he stopped smoking 2 years ago. Upon exam, you find: General: Alert, breathing comfortable, skin clammy Lungs: CTAB Cardiovascular: RRR, without m,r,g Abdomen: Soft and …
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