Practice Management
All the clinical expertise in the world won’t help you treat patients efficiently and properly if the tools of your trade aren’t in perfect working order. And in order to ensure the medical equipment you’ve invested so much in is up to performing its intended task, you’ve got to be aware of current standards. The Urgent Care Association will offer insights into how you can stay ahead of the need for calibration, preventive maintenance, and …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new, interim guidelines on assessing and treating patients with lung disease that could have been caused by use of e-cigarettes. The guidance emphasizes that close follow-up is needed, in light of cases in which “some patients who initially had mild symptoms experienced a rapid worsening of symptoms within 48 hours.” The CDC says it will continue to refine its recommendations as new data emerge. As of …
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As business operators, we probably think of our obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) mostly as they relate to employees. However, a recent case in Connecticut serves as a reminder that patient rights also fall under the ADA umbrella. An operator there is learning the consequences of that oversight as we speak. It all started when parents brought their child, who lives with a developmental disability, to the urgent care center …
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Regular readers of JUCM News (or any local or national mainstream news source) know that the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases has been rising for years—to the extent that there were 2.4 million new infections last year alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia are at all-time highs, and the CDC says it’s concerned about an increase in the number of newborn babies who have syphilis. …
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They weren’t designed as such, but recent events in Dayton, OH are proving to be a small but effective case study on the impact of urgent care. The local government was trying to drive down its healthcare costs, so it opened its own off-site urgent care/occupational medicine clinic for employees and their families. In the 3 years since, they’ve precluded around $1 million in reduced emergency spending alone. It’s gone so well that the Dayton …
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A recent post on the Forbes website noted that 64% of gig workers (or contractors, full-time freelancers, independent workers…pick your favorite term) have no paid sick time. Considering that they make up around one-third of the U.S. workforce these days, that’s a lot of people stressed about staying well or getting well quickly if they do get sick. Their economic survival (and physical health, obviously) depends on it. The Urgent Care Association just forged a …
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As the urgent care industry continues to grow, competition for the staff that will propel your business to new heights gets fiercer. You need to stand out to the candidates you want, just as they have to impress you. And once you hire them, you have to hang on to them; around one-third of employees quit within the first 6 months of employment. This is untrodden territory for many urgent care operators. How exactly do …
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Ownership structure gets talked about a lot in urgent care circles. Where entrepreneurial physicians essentially created the industry, it wasn’t too long before venture capitalists and health systems wanted in on the action and started gobbling up existing operators. Today those entities dominate. That doesn’t mean there are no other paths to success in the industry, however. The Franchise Times just announced that American Family Care cracked their list of the 200 fastest-growing franchises, coming …
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Patient satisfaction scores have become something of a currency in the healthcare marketplace. That’s probably truest in urgent care, where patients are making snap decisions on where to go in the next 5 minutes—often guided by Yelp, Google, and even travel sites like Travelocity. It’s so common that fear of bad reviews can creep into your mind and start affecting how you practice. The mainstream media is picking up on that concern, though the coverage …
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A provider’s time is tight in urgent care. Margins can be, too. But time you put aside to give away your services in measured quantities can wind up paying great dividends down the road. Xpress Wellness Urgent Care is investing in that concept by offering free sports physicals for student athletes in the Duncan, OK area this fall. Anyone taking them up on the offer even gets to go online to pick a time that’s …
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