Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Pamela Sullivan Takes Office as President of UCA Board of Directors

Pamela Sullivan, MD, MBA, FACP, PT was officially introduced as the newly elected president of the Urgent Care Association’s Board of Directors during the 2017 Urgent Care Convention & Expo, held this week in National Harbor, MD. Sullivan takes over from Steve Sellars, MBA, who served as president for the 2016–2017 term. In accepting the position, she stressed the necessity to help patients understand “their evolving healthcare options, while innovating new business models and processes …

ED ‘Superusers’ Have Unmet Needs Beyond Their Symptoms

Urgent care has taken root, among other reasons, based on its capability to treat patients who otherwise would be sitting (and waiting) in local hospital emergency rooms with nonemergent illness and injury. This benefits not only our industry and the patients who need urgent care, but also those patients who will find a less-crowded ED than they might find in a world without urgent care. And some of them—particularly those covered by Medicare and Medicaid, …

Physicians Make More Money in Rural, Low-Cost Areas

There may be a certain amount of prestige to be aligned with major teaching hospitals in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but physicians on the outskirts of medium-size cities are fetching higher pay these days, according to data just released by Doximity, a social network for clinicians. Researchers found salaries to be highest in rural, low-cost areas within medium-sized metropolitan areas. Doctors and advanced practice providers in the Charlotte, NC metro area are …

UCA Suggests Initiatives for Urgent Care Awareness Month in May

Having declared May to be Urgent Care Awareness Month, the Urgent Care Association has some ideas you can implement to highlight the value your urgent care center brings to the community. Benchmark Urgent & Family Care in Austin, TX, for one, is inviting its neighbors to come in for free blood pressure and blood sugar checks—a low-cost assessment for the operator that could have a high return once patients who’ve never visited before see the …

Hospitals Try ‘Loss Leader’ Approach to Keep Patients Away from Urgent Care

Hospital operators like Mission Health System in North Carolina and Rush University Medical Center are trying a new approach to draw in patients off the street: offering urgent care at primary care prices. It seems to be working, too, as visits to other urgent care centers are down in the Asheville, NC area since Mission made their move. Mission My Care Now has opened four primary care locations that are open to walk-in patients beyond …

Survey: Most Physicians Earning More and Are More Satisfied Than Last Year

Upheavals among payers, an unsure future for a national health plan, and evolving payment models have not dampened physicians’ enthusiasm for what they do for a living—in fact, most are happier than ever with their choice of profession, and are making more money at the same time, according the 2017 Medscape Physician Compensation Report. The data put average physician compensation at $294,000 annually, taking into account both the full array of specialties and primary care. …

Recognizing Ethical Companies in the Healthcare Marketplace

Seven health systems—including more than one with a stake in the urgent care marketplace—are among the World’s Most Ethical Companies, according to a new listing from the Ethisphere Institute. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Baptist Health South Florida, Cleveland Clinic, Covenant Health, Northwell Health, Sharp HealthCare, and University Hospitals were all recognized for their ethics and compliance programs; corporate citizenship and responsibility; creating a culture of ethics; governance; and their leadership, innovation, and reputation. More …

Urgent Care College is Rebranding to Recognize All Clinicians

Urgent care centers are staffed by more than just highly qualified physicians. Other clinicians—nurse practitioners and physician assistants among them—contribute to the success of a practice and have ongoing educational needs, too. Recognizing that, the Urgent Care College of Physicians (UCCOP) has been renamed the College of Urgent Care Medicine (CUCM). Sean McNeeley, MD, president of the College and a regular contributor to JUCM, revealed the change in a new monthly newsletter called Urgent Caring. …

New Data Show Same Diagnoses, Higher Costs at Freestanding EDs vs Urgent Care

Despite a growing stack of negative press clippings and legislative scrutiny, freestanding emergency rooms continue to take in patients off the street and charge them far more than they’d pay for the same services at urgent care centers. New data from four institutions in Texas reveal that mean out-of-pocket spending jumped 66% between 2012 and 2015 in the Lone Star State. Out-of-pocket costs grew by 38.5% at hospital-based EDs and by just 8.9% at urgent …

Urgent Care May Become Even More Important as Physician Shortage Approaches

By 2030, there will be a significant gap between the number of physicians who are practicing in the U.S. and the number needed to care for our aging population, according to new data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). At best, it would amount to a shortfall of 40,800 providers—at worst, 104,900, the association says. For primary care, the estimated shortage will be between 8,700 and 43,100 physicians by 2030. Emergency medicine, anesthesiology, …