Practice Management
Pop quiz: Which physician is better for your business—the one who can’t wait to start his much-anticipated trip to Tuscany, or the one who is going to forego a vacation because she thinks the practice can’t live without her for 2 weeks? If you chose the world traveler, you have a good chance of keeping your patient satisfaction scores up—and maybe even avoiding med errors and resultant lawsuits. Project: Time Off reports that 55% of …
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Insurers and other parties who hold a stake in the economics of urgent care tend to respond to cold hard data. Here’s some: Seven of the top 10 reasons patients sought care in a freestanding emergency room in 2014 could have been treated safely—but much less expensively—in an urgent care center, according to a new study by the Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC). Take sore throat, which topped the list of reasons …
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MedStar Health management thought the company was as prepared as it could be for computer system shutdowns. That bubble was burst when MedStar became the victim of a ransomware attack earlier this year, rendering its systems unusable for a time. The company had a corporate emergency plan, as well as a plan for each of its 10 hospitals and 250 outpatient clinics, but nothing that prepared it to handle all systems going down at once. …
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Credentialing is a process used to evaluate the qualifications and practice history of a doctor, including a review of completed education, training, residency, and licenses. It also includes any certifications issued by a board in the doctor’s area of specialty. Many urgent care centers assume their providers are fully credentialed; however, it is advisable to do your due diligence when engaging a new physician to ensure he or she has the necessary credentials. Even if …
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In urgent care, you get one shot to make the right diagnosis for patients you may have never seen before. If you want to make sure you see them again (ie, they become loyal customers), you have to get it right the first time. Michael Loeb, MD, will cover differentiating factors for making the right diagnosis when presented with common complaints, as well as appropriate management for sinusitis, bronchitis, dysuria, urethritis, and more in 5 …
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota sees a bright future for Livio Health Group, a new company that offers in-home urgent care and primary care services—so much so that it has invested an undisclosed amount to help the St. Paul, MN company increase its market presence. Livio sends clinicians to homes and other facilities to treat injuries and acute illness but also to help patients manage chronic conditions and offer diagnostic testing and preventative …
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The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is launching a new program that aims to simplify reporting of work-related illness and injury, as well as offer more protection for whistleblowers. Most relevant to urgent care operators who provide occupational health services, OSHA will require all work-related injuries and illness to be reported through a new database as of January 1, 2017. The same level of information will still have to be filed annually, but the …
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“Appearances matter” is a commonly heard phrase, but sometimes appearances can either encourage new patients to come in or literally stop patients at the door. It’s not enough that you’re open 12 hours per day. The equally important question is, does your urgent care center look open? I’ve frequently seen urgent care centers which—during operating hours—have their exterior signage turned off, no “open” sign displayed, and their window blinds closed, giving the appearance of being …
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Local media, elected municipal officials, and residents who know a good—and necessary—thing when they see one united in welcoming a new urgent care to an underserved corner of western Kansas. St. Catherine Hospital first recognized the need for a new community health resource to offset the pressure building in its own overcrowded emergency room, where patients complained about having to wait hours—or months, in extreme cases—just to be seen by a physician. Garden City, now …
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Some national provider organizations have, at times, been downright vehement in opposing the growth of urgent care. The common “complaint” seems to be that allowing patients to receive care without an appointment threatens the well-founded idea of the medical home. On the other hand—as industry insiders and patients know—urgent care provides necessary care at the time it’s needed most. If you want to build up relationships with local providers instead of defensively fending off misperceptions, …
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