Practice Management
If you’re looking to build a new urgent care facility, the first question you’re likely to ask is: How are we going to pay for this? Regional Medical Center (RMC) in Orangeburg, SC is looking to its surrounding community for help by way of using tax dollars to construct a new urgent care center. Brenda Williams, RMC’s vice president of strategy and development, says the emergency room is packed with people seeking nonemergent care. RMC …
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Six months after it started offering video visits through Doctor on Demand and American Well, UnitedHealthcare says it expects to “see” 20 million patients that way by the end of 2016. More than half of the visits, to date, have been for respiratory issues. Statistically, the average user is a 31-year-old female. UnitedHealthcare says the vast majority of employers it covers like the idea, but have concerns about how many of their workers will actually …
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An 18-year-old high school lacrosse player presents to an urgent care center with a painful left ankle. He states that the pain started 2 days earlier when he twisted his left ankle (an inversion injury) while competing in a tournament. He says that he tried to continue to play, but the pain increased. He reports that the ankle swelled over the lateral aspect and that he has pain when he walks. He says that he …
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URGENT MESSAGE: Job fairs can be an efficient and cost-effective method of finding suitable employees to fill open positions in urgent care centers. With diligent planning, a job fair can save valuable time by speeding up the interview process and can bring talented and qualified applicants right to your door. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and Practice Management Editor of JUCM — The Journal of …
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The percentage of uninsured Americans dropped below 10% by the end of 2015, compared with 16% when the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) was enacted in 2010. While the Obama administration chalks that up as a “win,” ACA critics question whether patients covered under ACA-supported plans have adequate coverage. Further, insurers have complained that offering coverage through ACA’s state exchanges is not cost-effective, with UnitedHealth and Humana deciding to stop participating in many states. …
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More primary care physicians understand urgent care’s rightful place in the continuum of care—and the advantages it might offer traditional office-based practices, according to a new article in Medical Economics magazine (How Urgent Care Relates to Physicians’ Practices, http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/how-urgent-care-relates-physicians-practices). David Meyers, MD, chief medical officer for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, reflects that “urgent care centers help put resources in the right places” by providing immediate care to those who need it at …
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Most Americans understand their healthcare options, but diverse age groups value different attributes when deciding where to get that care, according to a new survey by the Urgent Care Association of America. Quality factors, such as having a physician on site (a prevalent urgent care attribute compared with retail clinics more often staffed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants), were more important to patients in older age groups, while affordability and location were more important …
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Patients have their pick of more urgent care centers than ever before. Unfortunately, they tend to not differentiate one urgent care brand from the next. Throw in all the retail clinics and freestanding EDs, and it’s easy to see why making your location stand out among the rest is such a challenge. Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc will look more deeply into the issue and propose solutions to help you separate yourself from the herd during …
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With the number of domestic cases of Zika infection still growing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a new interim guidance for diagnosing the virus. The latest issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report notes that “on the basis of newly available data, CDC recommends that Zika virus rRT-PCR be performed on urine collected <14 days after onset of symptoms in patients with suspected Zika virus disease.” The new directive should help …
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Nearly 2 million Americans have an opioid use disorder. While there are many causative factors behind that staggering number, Steven J. Stack, MD, president of the American Medical Association, says “the opioid epidemic…far too often has started from a prescription pad.” In an open letter to all physicians in every setting across the country, Stack proposed seven steps physicians can take to help reverse the tide: “Avoid initiating opioids for new patients with chronic noncancer …
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