Practice Management
An urgent care company in Texas is betting that taking urgent care directly to patients who can’t (or simply don’t want to) come to a center will ultimately help its business. Taking a page from the Marcus Welby, MD playbook, it’s sending doctors out to make house calls in vehicles boldly adorned with its logo, website, and phone number. While there may be some promotional value in having that car on the street, and the …
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Whether an urgent care can bill Place of Service -19 or -22 requires an understanding of the criteria enabling facility code sets. An urgent care joint venture between physicians and a hospital recently inquired about using Place of Service 22 (Outpatient Hospital), enabling facility fees. The key with billing the urgent care as “outpatient hospital” is that it must truly qualify for that service. I have reservations as to whether the urgent care could bill …
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Hospitals are actually required to have a qualified medical interpreter on hand when treating patients who don’t understand English well enough to participate fully in discussion of their care (though, as a recent blog post on KevinMD points out, it’s a rule that is followed inconsistently, at best). Urgent care centers—especially those in an area with a high number of immigrant residents or businesses—may be well positioned to fill the gap for those patients. The …
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It’s likely every successful urgent care operator has caught on to the idea that effective search engine optimization (SEO, the key terms and phrases that make your web content identifiable to Google and other search engines) is necessary for you to stand out in your marketplace. But have you thought about updating your SEO terms seasonally? Holiday optimization tips for remaining competitive in the SERP, on the website Search Engine Land, includes urgent care centers …
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It’s been well documented that higher flu shot rates equate to lower incidence of potentially deadly seasonal influenza cases. It’s also been shown that some patients are less likely than others to get a flu shot. Some think they don’t need it or can’t afford it. However, you can reach those who claim it’s too inconvenient to get a shot, or that they simply don’t have the time, by setting up shop wherever people congregate. …
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Patients have options for getting to many care settings even if they’re unable to drive themselves or get a ride from a loved one. Some Medicaid patients arrive in the emergency room in an ambulance—even if they’re complaints don’t warrant such urgency. A couple of major health plans in Miami send vans around to collect Medicare members who need to see their primary care, and employers often provide transportation to workers who need to see …
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Many local newspapers, magazines and radio stations hand out “people’s choice awards,” in which individuals in the community nominate and vote for their favorite businesses in various categories. The Rockford (Illinois) Register-Star holds an annual Best of the Rock River Valley promotion, for example, in which readers vote for their favorite hospital, chiropractor, dentist, family practice, and emergency room, among other categories. Supporters of businesses like the Dogwood Pet Resort are encouraged to spread the word …
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Colleges (not to mention nervous moms and dads) probably do everything they can to ensure that students know where the infirmary or student health center is located. While that’s clearly important, hours of operation tend to me somewhat limited. Students, especially those who may away from home for the first time, need to have a back-up plan when injury or illness strikes—and your urgent care center should be part of it. Ensure that it is …
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In today’s “connected” world, few of us can go hours without checking our email, text messages, and social media posts. The same is true for urgent care center providers and staff. However, when patients see employees chatting or texting on their cell phones, they can get the impression that the focus is on the employee’s personal concerns and not patient care. For an employer, this behavior represents lost on the clock productivity, with the opportunity …
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Anecdotal evidence that urgent care is a safe, lower-cost alternative to the emergency room and a more convenient setting than the primary care office is abundant. What about properly designed research that provides hard data, though? The Urgent Care Association of America has made great strides toward validating industry standards with its annual, voluntary benchmarking survey, but otherwise the industry has lagged in researching itself. Now Intermountain Healthcare has taken a step toward filling the …
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