Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Military Families Keep Expanded Urgent Care Access

The newly released Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) ensures that service members and their families will be able to visit urgent cares when necessary without prior authorization—access that would not have been covered under the NDAA, historically. The 2017 rules state that military medical treatment facilities must provide urgent care services for members of armed forces and covered beneficiaries until 11 PM daily; in areas where there are no such facilities, however, …

Online Searches for ‘Urgent Care’ Keep Growing

Patients looking for immediate care often turn to Google to find it—and over the past 4 years, they’ve typed in “urgent care” before hitting Enter more than ever. Google Trends, which tracks search data, reports that Arizona leads the nation in searches for “urgent care,” with North Dakota having the fewest searches. At the same time, Google Trends reports that searches for the word “hospital” have been in decline for several years. Rising healthcare costs, …

Hopkins Tries Urgent Care for Cancer Patients

Patients being treated for cancer have medical needs that extend far beyond their most critical diagnosis—more than a few of which are a result of their treatment. Johns Hopkins Hospital is offering them a place to go besides the emergency room when they’re suffering with pain, fever, nausea, or anything else for which they need immediate care, by creating an urgent care center specifically for them. Besides the long waits and generalized care they can …

Yale Study Shows ‘Surprise’ Bills Still Common After a Trip to the ED

Though much maligned in the press and the subject of legislation in a number of states, “surprise” bills are still an issue for patients after a trip to their local emergency room. In fact, a new study by Yale researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that nearly a quarter of in-network ED visits can be followed by a bill from an out-of-network doctor. The authors considered claims for more than 2 …

Holiday Celebrations Often Followed by a Trip to Urgent Care

Whether it’s due to undercooking, carving, or trying to deep fry a turkey, the day after Thanksgiving is the second busiest day of the year in urgent care (followed by the day after Christmas), according to a CityMD survey of its own physicians. Overall, 60% of CityMD’s urgent care centers in the New York and Seattle areas see an increase in patient visits related to cooking wounds, such as lacerations and burns, around the Thanksgiving …

More Hospitals Respond to Opioid Crisis—Should Urgent Care, Too?

We told you recently about an innovative, urgent care-centric program Boston Medical Center launched to get patients who are addicted to opioids the care they need as efficiently as possible. Now more hospitals are jumping on the bandwagon to fight the addiction epidemic. Patients who are treated for overdoses at SSM Health St. Mary Hospital in Madison, WI are invited to meet with “recovery coaches” on staff in the emergency room. Initiatives have even gone …

Health Data Management IDs 30 Largest Urgent Care Chains

Urgent care watchers know the industry has been growing at a steady clip for years, with the latest surge fueled by patients and payers eager to get quality care for a fraction of the price of a trip to the emergency room. Some urgent care operators focus more on growth than others, of course. Health Data Management and Merchant Medicine teamed up to identify just which 30 urgent care chains have grown to be the …

Top Reasons for 2016 ED Visits Show Overlap with Urgent Care Strengths

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 136 million people end up in an emergency room every year in the United States. Of those, 2.1 million are admitted to a critical care unit. Many of the rest could be treated just as well—and much more conveniently and less expensively—in a full-service urgent care center. Consider that the following are among the most common reasons for visits to the ED: Skin infections Cuts …

Urgent Care Continues to Boost the U.S. Construction Industry

A new survey of hospital construction projects points to the ongoing growth of urgent care as one driver of a construction boom within the healthcare industry. In fact, urgent care, outpatient facilities, and medical specialty complexes are the key contributors to significant increases in new construction. Health Facilities Management’s 2016 Hospital Construction Survey indicated the boom is on track to continue, too; 35% of respondents said they expect to have a medical office project in …

Urgent Care Pushes CMS to Adopt Patient Copays Instead of Coinsurance

The Urgent Care Association (UCA) sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in favor of lowering the copay patients would be responsible for when visiting an urgent care visit, effective in 2018. The changes would affect the cost-sharing structure for “standardized options” (ie, Simple Choice plans) that plan issuers offer in the individual insurance marketplace. Standardized options are intended to simplify the consumer plan selection process; each has a single …