Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Nurse Practitioners Are More in Demand by Recruiters than Most Physician Specialties

Family physicians and psychiatrists are the most in-demand physicians and healthcare providers overall when it comes to recruiting assignments, but nurse practitioners are now third on the list, according to a report from MerrittHawkins, a subsidiary of AMN Healthcare. The authors attribute the sharp rise of nurse practitioners among recruiters seeking to fill positions to the growing number of retail clinics—and the ongoing growth of urgent care. In fact, “urgent care” was used as a …

Southern Cal Keeps Searching for Ways to Get Patients Out of the ED and into Urgent Care

Visits to emergency rooms continue to go up as hospital admissions drop in southern California, suggesting that either many of those flocking to the ED don’t need to be there or patients who need beds aren’t getting them, according to a new series of articles published in the Whittier Daily News. Either way, it would seem wider, acuity-appropriate use of urgent care resources would reduce the volume while increasing efficiency of care. Another solution being …

Despite ‘Corrective’ Measures, ED Spending Keeps Going Up—Along with Prices

More than one insurer has tried to dissuade plan members from going to the emergency room by threatening to stick them with the bill if their visit proves (after the fact) to have been nonemergent. The urgent care industry has also put a good deal of effort into trying to educate the public as to when they really need to be in the ED and when it makes more sense, both logistically and economically, to …

Urgent Care and Life Science Players Team Up for a Brain Health Initiative

ChoiceOne/MedSpring, operators of more than 60 urgent care centers around the country, and life sciences company Quadrant Biosciences have entered a partnership to offer a new brain health assessment service at existing locations in Maryland and Texas. Called ClearEdge, the system was developed with experts at SUNY Upstate Medical University. It essentially packages together an array of functional assessments designed to monitor and track subtle changes in cognitive function, balance, and patient symptoms over time. …

Suit Claims CVS Revealed HIV Status of 6,000 Patients in Ohio

CVS Health is one of the defendants in a federal lawsuit claiming that it and other companies failed to protect the HIV status of 6,000 patients in Ohio—not through an online data breach, but thanks to a poorly constructed envelope. The suit filed by three unidentified plaintiffs maintains that when CVS mailed letters to patients in the state’s HIV drug assistance program last year, the recipients’ HIV status was visible in the envelope’s glassine window. …

Walmart and Sam’s Club Lay Down Their Own Opioid Limits

Insurers, health systems, and state governments have cobbled together regulations on various aspects of prescriptions for opiates. The federal government is working on legislation aimed at curbing the opioid crisis, too. Walmart and Sam’s Club’s pharmacies aren’t waiting for new regulations to mandate the limits of opioid prescriptions, however. Instead, the parent company is imposing a limit of 7-days’ supply for patients who are prescribed opiates for acute, short-term pain. Those restrictions will start within …

Failing to Collect ‘Small’ Unpaid Fees Adds Up—and Up, and Up

It would seem to be self-evident that your urgent care center needs to collect on all fees for care provided in order to stay in business. Whether by sloppy bookkeeping, honest mistakes, or well-intentioned attempts at “charity,” however, millions of dollars are going unclaimed for services rendered across the country, according to an editorial that appeared in the Chicago Tribune recently. The opinion piece, penned by the paper’s Editorial Board, goes so far as to …

Patient Still Have Difficulty Accessing Their Own Medical Records

Despite vast improvements in the management of patient data thanks to the advent of electronic health records, too many people still have a hard time getting access to their own healthcare information, according to the Government Accountability Office. Under the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), this presents a problem for consumers and providers alike. HIPAA mandates that patients be able to receive a copy of their own medical …

Medical Group Saves $6.5 Million by Focusing on the ‘Right Care at the Right Time’

Columbia Medical Associates (CMA) of Spokane, WA chose to tackle runaway medical costs by taking a deep dive into the data pool, searching for areas where resources were being expended needlessly. The first glaring point: They had to reduce emergency room utilization without sacrificing patient care. One solution: Teach patients the concept of seeking the “right care at the right time.” That included getting them to realize they could be seen efficiently and receive excellent …

New Data Show Ongoing Growth in Spite of Increasing Competition for Urgent Care

On-demand care is no longer limited to urgent care and the emergency room. Retail clinics and telemedicine give healthcare consumers more choices than ever before. That’s done nothing to impede the growth of urgent care, however. The latest annual Benchmarking Report from the Urgent Care Association (formerly the Urgent Care Association of America) and Merchant Medicine shows that urgent care operators continue to see consistent, year-over-year growth in spite of the increased competition. That goes …