Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Your Nondiscrimination Statements Have to Be Posted by October 17

Urgent care operators—and all healthcare providers who receive federal funds (eg, reimbursement under government programs like Medicaid or plans that take part in the Affordable Care Act)—are required by federal law to post nondiscrimination notices in public view by October 17. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights says physicians must take “appropriate initial and continuing steps” to notify patients of certain information/services related to nondiscrimination. HHS has posted …

Plan Ahead for Cost When Upgrading Systems

Progress—especially where technology is concerned—by definition should move your business forward; otherwise it would be called regress. One health system in Ohio is learning the hard way that failing to recognize the cost of moving to a new EHR system can put a serious dent in your annual earnings report. In fact, ProMedica says its $1.9 million first-half loss was “primarily driven by significant expenses due to the implementation of the Epic electronic health record …

Urgent Care Businesses Are Hot Commodities

The fourth quarter of 2016 looks to be an especially busy one for healthcare acquisitions—with urgent care concerns being particularly hot report, according to a from Bloomberg’s Bureau of National Affairs (BNA). There are a large number of deals being hammered out currently, and both buyers and sellers are eager to close them before they close the annual books. Long-term care, health information technology, and physician practice all figure to lead the charge, with urgent …

Offering Urgent Care ‘Subscriptions’ May Boost Patient Engagement

We’ve mentioned here that healthcare costs and physician shortages could amount to an opportunity for creative urgent care businesses. Valley Immediate Care in Oregon is the latest operator to adopt an increasingly popular strategy to take advantage of that opportunity: low-cost “subscription” healthcare services, in this case marketed under the name My Urgent Care 365. Individual subscriptions cost $40 a month and entitle the subscriber to three visits annually, with a $25 urgent care fee. …

Healthcare Helps Drive Thriving Real Estate Markets

The ongoing “consumerization” of healthcare—evidenced by the continuing growth of urgent care, telehealth and other patient-convenience trends—is one key factor in how medical facilities and related operations are fueling a boom in local real estate markets. As medical practice moves away from a hospital-centric model toward a culture more similar to a retail appearance, existing spaces need to be adapted to accommodate private exam and x-ray areas, offer comfortable waiting rooms, and assure adequate parking …

Keep Your Business Healthy by Encouraging Vacations

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 …

Encourage a Seasonal Surge by Courting Vacationers

Many urgent care centers are well prepared to administer travel-related vaccines for tourists bound for the Olympics or ready to set sail on a cruise. What about closer to home, though? With school out and vacationing in, would the first aid center at the water park and the manager of that motel off the interstate think of your urgent care center when they need to refer a guest who needs immediate care? You should 1) …

Collecting Your Own Patient Experience Data May Be More Help than Yelp

Probably more than for any other setting, patients rely on information they find online before deciding to visit an urgent care clinic. If you have stellar reviews on Yelp or other online review platforms, you’re in good shape, but the randomness of such sources can be a problem. Sentara Healthcare took matters into its own hands by surveying its own urgent care patients, resulting in 10,000 responses, and posting their results online. Working with National …

Sentara Jumps into the Urgent Care Patient Experience Data Pool

Hospital systems have been tracking patient experiences for decades. Now one of them is extending that practice to its own urgent care centers; Sentara Healthcare is thought to be the first organization in the country to post aggregate patient survey ratings for urgent care centers online. National Research Corporation reached out to 40,000 patients within 1 to 3 days of a Sentara urgent care visit over the past year, asking them to rate their experience …

Pilot Program Underscores Need to Contract as an Urgent Care Center

A pilot program aimed at making it easier to keep insurers’ provider directories up to date could benefit urgent care entities that contract as such—and make it harder for those that don’t to draw patients. The six-month program, sponsored by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), will offer more than 100,000 providers in California, Indiana, and Florida the luxury of informing just one point of contact about any changes in their practice instead of having to …