Harris Fleming, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Maintain Tight Control Over Patient Data—or Prepare to Pay a Hefty Price

There are countless ethical and legal reasons to ensure confidential patient data remain confidential. When private information becomes available to the general public, cyber terrorists or criminals, or prospective employers the consequences are grave for patients and damaging to the healthcare institution’s reputation. Now we’re getting a good sense of just how severe legal and monetary judgements can be for organizations found to have committed health data privacy violations. The Federal Trade Commission imposed a …

Low Reimbursements Are Pushing Some Urgent Care Operators to Make Tough Decisions

It’s common (and understandable) for urgent care operators and providers to feel undercompensated by payers for the services they provide. The quality of care is excellent, typically, and the cost savings passed along to insurers every time a patient can avoid going to the emergency room is almost incalculable. And yet, those insurers impose policies that make it very difficult for reimbursements to match the presumed value of urgent care. Workplace efficiencies can only go …

When Cyber Terrorists Attack, Fast Action Is Essential to Protect Data and Your Business

Lehigh Valley Health Network is the latest healthcare system to fall prey to Russian ransomware gangs, with the breach of patient records at one of its physician practices in Lackawanna County, PA. According to a report published by The Morning Call, a group called BlackCat gained access to patient radiologic imaging files and threatened to release them publicly unless Lehigh Valley paid an unnamed ransom. They refused and are working with cybersecurity specialists to tighten …

Could the Postpandemic Era Mark the Right Time for Behavioral Health Urgent Care?

With increasing rates of depression and anxiety attributed to life changes over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic coinciding with (or perhaps causing) increased delays in seeing mental health professionals, it seems clear new solutions are needed in the behavioral health setting. With the traditional urgent care model now proven as an alternative to both primary care and the emergency room for most complaints, efforts are afoot to establish a new variety of urgent care …

As Predicted, Wait Times in the ED Are Pushing More Patients to Urgent Care

Just a couple of weeks ago, we reported that various hospital systems and municipal governments around the country were imploring patients to visit urgent care centers instead of hospital emergency rooms whenever it’s appropriate due to soaring wait times in EDs. That recommendation seems to have been adopted, as we’re already seeing local media reports of increased volume in UCCs. WTOC in Bryan County, GA, for one, reports that with area EDs being “overwhelmed with …

Yes, Long COVID Is Still a Thing—but Don’t Let the Symptoms Lead You Astray

With healthcare and mainstream media devoting so much energy to raising awareness of long COVID, it could be easy to write off some of the telltale signs—cognitive difficulties, headaches, pain, dizziness, fatigue, and others—as exactly that and look no further into alternative diagnoses. That could be a costly mistake for a patient’s wellbeing, though, as a new article published by the European Journal of Neurology reveals that some patients with those characteristic symptoms could actually …

As Another COVID-19 Surge Dawns, States with Low Vaccination Rates Seem Most at Risk

While the national rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths remain well below the levels we experienced at the height of the pandemic, data tracked by The New York Times indicate that the coming weeks could bring an uptick in new cases nationally. The latest report shows that several states are already seeing an upswing in confirmed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Cases in Idaho soared 106% over the past 2 weeks, though deaths were down …

The Safety and Security of Your Center Are Under Assault. Is Your Team Prepared?

Trinity Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI had to shut its emergency room down due to a bomb threat one evening last week. It was just the latest in a series of threatened or actual violence at healthcare facilities in the United States. Last June, a former surgical patient went on a shooting spree at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, OK, killing four people and injuring several others before committing suicide. Then in …

X-Rays Are a Defining Urgent Care Attribute, but Times May Call for a Creative Approach

Of the many answers to the question What sets urgent care centers apart from retail clinics?, the ability to offer x-rays on site is high on the list. Some might call it one of urgent care’s distinguishing characteristics. It seems like the ability to continue doing so gets more challenging by the day, though. As JUCM readers know, one concern is a shortage of qualified radiologic technologists. And with the rapid growth of the industry, …

As ED Wait Times Grow Dangerously Long, Ensure You’re Ready for New Patients

Staffing shortages, provider burnout, and the general public’s full return to postpandemic normalcy are conspiring to create long waits in hospital emergency rooms—so long, in fact, that hospital administrators and local government officials are pleading with patients to visit urgent care and other walk-in or virtual healthcare providers when prudent. Statistically, patients heading to EDs in Maryland have it worst, as they’ll wait an average of 228 minutes to be seen as reported by The …