Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Telemedicine Reimbursements Are Expanding Along with Utilization; Is It Time to Try It?

State support for reimbursing telemedicine providers is growing at a fast and furious pace—as is consumer adoption of telemedicine services. According to the American Telemedicine Association’s 2019 State of the States Report: Coverage and Reimbursement, 40 states and the District of Columbia have adopted substantive policies or received awards to expand telehealth coverage and reimbursement—just since 2017. In doing so, they’re also increasing access for patients and incentivizing providers (including urgent care operators) to jump …

Urgent Care Could Be Saving the Healthcare System $32 Billion a Year

A new report from UnitedHealth Group reveals that around two-thirds of the 27 million annual visits to U.S. emergency rooms are unnecessary. Those 18 million encounters carry an average cost of $2,032 each, adding up to a $36 billion price tag for care that could be provided more easily and just as safely elsewhere for a fraction of the cost. The same brief notes the average cost of a trip to an urgent care center …

Teach Families About Urgent Care by Helping Disadvantaged Kids Prepare for the School Year

It’s only August, but some regions of the country have already had their back-to-school days. Others are just now seeing advertisements for blockbuster sales of school supplies. For some families, though, those promotions serve as a painful reminder that new supplies are out of reach for their children. Dayton (NV) Urgent Care has taken notice of this and is trying to ease the load by collecting community donations of backpacks and school supplies appropriate for …

Online Patient Reviews Quantify Merits of—and Show Lots of Love for—Urgent Care

A study just published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine highlights the growing trend of patients flocking to urgent care centers, and having a positive experience once they get there. The research considers more than 84,500 urgent care center reviews and over 16,400 emergency department reviews on Yelp. In general, the authors note, patients give higher ratings to urgent care; around 60% of the urgent care reviews were four stars or more, while around the …

You Should Be Commended for Your Antibiotic Stewardship Efforts—Literally

The Urgent Care Association and the College of Urgent Care Medicine have launched a new initiative to formally acknowledge urgent care operators who demonstrate compliance with the Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Antibiotic Stewardship Commendation program is intended to encourage urgent care centers to become more proactive in their antibiotic stewardship efforts. Using evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and management, participating urgent care operators can design …

Drive-by Promotions May Help Patients Choose the Right Care Setting—Including Yours

Despite countless urgent care centers devoting lots of time, signage, and promotional messages to helping patients understand when they can go to an urgent care center or really do need to go to the emergency room, confusion prevails for too many. They go to the ED with a common earache or after they’ve stepped in a ditch and sprained their ankle. Or they go to an urgent care center with chest pain when there’s an …

To Reel in New Patients, You Need the Right Bait

By the time August rolls around, parents may be running out of ideas on how to keep the kids occupied with healthy outdoor summer pursuits. That’s also around the time they have to start thinking about ensuring vaccinations are up to date, and sports physicals have cleared them to compete in the fall. Immediate Care Medical Walk-In of New Jersey hit on a way to reach out to families with those concerns while also giving …

Measles Data Provide Ammunition for Immunization Discussions—Use It

The ongoing surge in cases of measles illustrates the limits of herd immunity—even when we’re talking about a disease that was declared “eliminated” in the United States in 2000. Some “anti-vaxxers” mistakenly rationalize that they and their children don’t need immunizations against measles and other diseases if the majority of people around them have been vaccinated. The scientifically supported fact is that exposure to vaccine-preventable disease can lead to serious illness (or even death), and …

Urgent Care Recruiting Trends Set the Tone for Healthcare Overall

The need to be “everywhere all the time” has become something of a mantra in healthcare, according to the latest Overview of the Salaries, Bonuses, and Other Incentives Customarily Used to Recruit Physicians, Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners, compiled and presented by Merritt Hawkins. The report spotlights the growth of urgent care, specifically, along with other walk-in settings as a key influencer in changing patient expectations when they choose a healthcare provider. Secondary to that, …

In Case You Haven’t Noticed, It’s Hot Out—and Your Patients Need You to Be Prepared

Much of the country has been suffering through a brutal heatwave this week. As temperatures and oppressive humidity rise, unfortunately, air quality goes down, leaving even healthy patients more susceptible to respiratory problems. Those with already-compromised breathing, such as from asthma, COPD, and other conditions, are in really dangerous territory. Add to that the fact that many people travel the country at this time of year (and, hence, don’t have access to their usual providers) …

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