Practice Management
CareNow, a division of Hospital Corporation of America operating 26 centers in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, has a membership program for patients without insurance. It appeals particularly to patients with high-deductible health plans who will be responsible, out of pocket, for the costs of their urgent care visits and thus choose to not use their insurance. CareNow charges $18/month for the membership and $68 for sick visits with the membership. Complex procedures, such as incision & …
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Urgent Message: Blogging is a relatively simple, inexpensive, and completely customized marketing tool too often underutilized by urgent care operators. Employed correctly, however, it can help search engines deliver potential patients to your website at any time of day or night. These days, it doesn’t matter if a patient is trying to find a nearby urgent care facility or research a medical condition to determine if they need medical attention. They won’t be looking in …
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Urgent message: When employees in an urgent care center encounter a physician or administrator who is challenging to work for, there are often steps they can take to avoid having to choose between their job and their sense of wellbeing. In today’s busy work environment, we interact with dozens of people every day, and sometimes challenging individuals go with the territory. Nevertheless, coping with a troublesome boss is overwhelming, and studies have shown that …
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Urgent message: Medical assistants (MAs) provide flexible, cost-effective clinical support for urgent care centers. With proper training and working under a physician’s supervision, an MA can perform most basic support functions in this setting. Introduction While there’s a lack of verifiable data as to the total number of unsuccessful urgent care endeavors, we can presume at least one common reason urgent care centers shutter their doors and permanently cease operations: they exhaust their working capital. …
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Urgent Message: An established chain of command clearly delineates roles and accountability among staff in an urgent care center. When this chain is broken by upper management “dipping down,” it creates confusion among staff, undermines supervisors’ authority, and brings inefficiency to operations. Case: Ian is the administrative director at a local urgent care center that’s part of a multi-unit operation. His responsibilities include scheduling the clinical support staff, approving time cards and writing performance reviews, …
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Urgent message: There is a growing need for awareness of medical, safety, and social issues involving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community in health care. Here’s how urgent care fits in. Introduction There are significant unmet health needs among members of the U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) population, many of whom are afraid to access the health-care system and face barriers to care even if they do seek treatment. Clearly …
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Urgent message: Many employers confuse perks with culture. Perks are non-wage benefits offered to employees, while culture refers to the beliefs, behaviors, and interactions of individual employees. While perks may be part of a culture, they are not a substitute or a basis for culture. The software development industry includes some of the most forward-thinking companies in the world. Not only are they creating technologies that are changing the way we work and play, they …
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Urgent message: Just as urgent care has changed consumer attitudes and behaviors related to on-demand healthcare, One Medical is reinventing the primary care practice by emphasizing high-tech engagement, on-demand convenience, quality provider face time, and price transparency. If the rise of urgent care were a television drama, then primary care might be one of the villains. Unable to get an appointment in a timely manner—in some markets waiting weeks or months—and having to miss work …
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Urgent Message: Tobacco-related illness costs the U.S. healthcare system billions in preventable medical expenses, yet many employees of urgent care centers continue to light up. It may be time for your urgent care center to address the issue of employee smoking by offering incentives for smoking cessation. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. A …
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URGENT MESSAGE: When considering the options of expanding an urgent care center, it is difficult to justify allocating money toward marketing campaigns because the return on investment is not definitive. However, correctly understanding and effectively implementing marketing metrics can be fundamental in strategically building continuously improving—and successful—urgent care centers. As an urgent care owner, determining the value of marketing is difficult because a consumer’s perception about a company cannot be quantified. In any industry, a …
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