Practice Management
URGENT MESSAGE: Although the Affordable Care Act has made some progress in reducing the number of Americans without any health insurance, many of the newly insured are still unable to afford routine healthcare due to plan designs that include high deductibles, copays and coinsurance. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association of America, …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Urgent care requires dedicated, engaged, and focused frontline staff members to deliver the types of patient experiences that spur repeat visits and positive word of mouth. Yet a Gallup poll conducted in 2014 showed that a paltry 32% of U.S. workers are truly engaged in their jobs.1 That means that more than two-thirds of America’s workforce is simply going through the motions—which engagement experts have clearly demonstrated has a …
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URGENT MESSAGE: Zoom+, which operates 28 walk-in clinics in the Pacific Northwest, has long been a technological innovator, launching web registration, scheduling, and telemedicine in its markets. In the past year, ZoomCare has evolved further to create Zoom+, integrating urgent care with insurance, primary care, wellness, specialists, and ancillary services. As Zoom+ refocuses the future of urgent care around the needs of its community, there is much that other urgent care operators can learn in …
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URGENT MESSAGE: American consumers have been conditioned to expect high levels of customer service in exchange for their hard-earned money, so when urgent care fails to deliver on patient expectations, the result can be devastating to a center’s reputation. Fortunately, negative experiences can be turned around by practical strategies for dealing with angry patients. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, a member of the Board …
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URGENT MESSAGE: As urgent care developers seek prime real estate for their medical centers, bank branches that have been vacated due to mergers may provide a high-traffic, high-visibility solution, although there are practical challenges with converting a former bank branch to an urgent care center. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, a member of the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association of America, …
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URGENT MESSAGE: During the gold rush of the mid-1800s, miners and bartenders enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship in which neither could survive the Wild West without the other. In the modern “gold rush” of U.S. healthcare spending, coordinators of population health and service/technology innovators are working together to improve outcomes and lower costs, propelling new business models—including urgent care. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, …
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Urgent message: Creating and cultivating cohesive, goal-oriented, and patient-focused urgent care teams starts with visible front-line leaders who emphasize a strong service culture, open communication, personal accountability, and management transparency. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Introduction The stress, resentment, and dissatisfaction that one experiences being part of a disconnected and ineffective team are not easily forgotten. Common sense may lead one to believe that the safest path is to ignore the team’s dysfunction and consider it just a part of …
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URGENT MESSAGE: Urgent care’s value proposition is “access,” which includes walk-in availability whenever patients have a medical need. However, could using some minimum operating hours as a defining feature of “urgent care” unintentionally restrict access for tens of millions of Americans living in historically underserved communities with population density insufficient to support opening seven days per week and 3,000 hours per year? Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of …
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URGENT MESSAGE: Unlike most retail and service businesses in which customer transactions result in immediate cash in the register, the nature of insurance and government billing in urgent care creates accounts receivable, which can be a complicating factor when buying or selling an urgent care practice. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, a member of the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association of …
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Urgent message: ZoomCare, which operates 28 walk-in clinics in the Pacific Northwest, has long been a technological innovator, launching web registration, scheduling, and telemedicine in its markets. In the past year, ZoomCare has evolved further to create ZOOM+, integrating urgent care with insurance, primary care, wellness, specialists, and ancillary services. As ZOOM+ redefines the future of urgent care around the needs of its community, there is much that other urgent care operators can learn in attaining revenue growth from a maturing …
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