Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Can Urgent Care Patients be Treated Anonymously?

Urgent message: Due to the perceived “acute nature” of the urgent care setting, many patients falsely believe that they can be treated anonymously. On the contrary, legal implications, insurance practices, and the integration of technology with medical records mean that delivering anonymous care is nearly impossible. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Healthcare is intensely personal, …

Rural and Tertiary Markets: The Next Urgent Care Frontier

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: Given the oversaturation and resulting fierce competition among urgent care chains in the affluent suburbs of major cities, the underserved rural healthcare market offers tremendous growth opportunity for the forward-thinking urgent care operator. Urgent care began as a suburban phenomenon—and continues to be, as evidenced by the Urgent …

Much Ado About Toilet Bluing (and Other Drug Testing Requirements)

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine and is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care. Urgent message: While any urgent care’s preferred “toilet bluing” method for urine specimen drug screen collects would seem a mundane matter, a careless or haphazard approach can result in unintended and potentially serious consequences. Urgent care centers that provide occupational medicine and drug testing services are required to follow specific …

One Visit, Multiple Complaints: Meeting the Patient’s Needs without Giving Services Away

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: While it’s common for urgent care patients to raise multiple medical concerns during an urgent care visit, there is only one “chief complaint”—the potentially most serious of all concerns during that visit. It’s a frequent occurrence for patients to present in an urgent care center with multiple medical …

What Use Restrictions Can Landlords Impose on Urgent Care Facilities?

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: Lease “exclusivity of use” provisions prohibiting competing urgent care centers, walk-in medical clinics, primary care offices, etc. are often used in leases to protect an urgent care center, but there are implications for both landlord and tenant. “Landlord agrees that no other space in the Fairland …

Recognizing the Role of Medical Assistants in Urgent Care

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine and is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care. Urgent message: Each year, the third full week of October is earmarked to celebrate an extremely valuable group of individuals in the urgent care world: medical assistants (MAs). We are in the middle of Medical Assistants Recognition Week for 2019—and Medical Assistants Recognition Day is today, Wednesday, October 23. While the …

Inbound Referral Strategies for Urgent Care

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: To successfully build patient volume, urgent care operators must ensure that their centers continually develop, nurture, and execute mutually beneficial referral relationships with local PCPs, specialists, and health systems. Among the many reasons hospitals and health systems continue to invest in urgent care is the value urgent care …

Advertised ED Wait Times Negatively Skew Patient Perceptions Regarding Nonemergent Encounters

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: While hospital emergency departments view the tactic of advertising their “wait times” to the community as a strategic marketing advantage, the skewed perceptions it creates can mislead patients and even put patients’ health at risk. Among the many factors leading to the rise of urgent care has been …

Whether You Fail or Prevail Rests on Your Preparedness for Flu Season—Now

Urgent message: As this year’s flu season arrives, urgent care providers must take stock of their individual capabilities, then develop a comprehensive strategy that addresses employee and patient flu vaccinations, marketing campaigns, competing with retail flu shot providers, and handling the increased seasonal influx of flu patients. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. The end of …

Employer Liability for Flu Infection

Urgent message: While urgent care centers benefit from exaggerated seasonal demand when a flu epidemic strikes, the risk is that the center’s own employees will get infected by contagious patients, incur medical costs, and lose time from work when they’re needed most. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer for Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Introduction It’s not uncommon for an urgent care …