Practice Management
UnitedHealth Group thought it was a great idea at the time: offer no-cost primary and behavioral care, in the hope that the company would bring in enough money through claims, while also building a loyal customer base. Detractors may say it was a nonstarter, or that the notion had merit but was poorly designed; some may even point the finger at the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare). Either way, the company is shutting down …
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The emergency room at the Washington (DC) Hospital Center had a statistically validated reputation for long waits—more than 115 minutes, on average. They’ve managed to lop an hour off that, though, thanks to a new telemedicine system that’s helped reduce clutter and time waiting to be seen. Employing a system called Teletriage, by EmOpti, the MedStar-owned facility now uses video to allow providers to see a patient remotely during the triage process. Triage nurses start …
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Growing investment by service providers, occupational medicine companies, and entrepreneurs, along with wider acceptance by health plans, seems to confirm that telemedicine is no longer the Next Big Thing, but a newly essential service that urgent care operators need to consider offering. Most recently, U.S. HealthWorks announced that it’s launching a comprehensive telemedicine program called USHW CareConnectNOW, which will link patients to state-licensed medical providers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So far, …
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In the wake of the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks that left hospitals shaken—and showed there’s no such thing as being too prepared for cyber threats—the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is urging hospitals and large healthcare providers to step up their own security measures. However, every healthcare operation, including single-unit urgent care centers, should increase their vigilance for and institute practices to guard against such attacks. HHS recommends that all workers in healthcare …
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New guidelines for caring for young athletes with concussions favor movement over rest more than previous recommendations. The advisory, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, suggests that getting the patient to start moving—slowly, with gradual increases—may shorten recovery time. The authors are very clear that this does not mean returning to the field of play right away, however. Rather, where patients have been instructed to rest until symptoms completely disappear previously, there now …
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The ever-increasing investment hospitals are making in their own urgent care offerings, along with the growing senior population and evolving habits of younger patients, are key factors in the ongoing growth of the urgent care industry, according to a new report by TMR Research. Urgent Care Centers Market—Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth, and Forecast 2017–2025 also credits the pioneering operators who brought the industry to this point, however, noting that the services …
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The number of marijuana-related visits to the emergency room and urgent care center at Children’s Hospital Colorado has more than quadrupled since Colorado legalized recreational use, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus reviewed ED and urgent care records for 13- to 21-year-olds, looking for visits where the patient either had a diagnostic code related to marijuana use or a positive urine screen; that number rose from 146 …
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Minnesota has seen a huge uptick in measles cases lately, coinciding statistically with a drop in immunization rates in the state. In addition to the antivaccine movement going on all over the country, Minnesota has a subgroup of activists who are also anti-immigration that has tried to convince Somali immigrants that vaccines are dangerous as a way to dissuade more Somalis from moving in. The first measles cases cropped up a month ago, and public …
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The Food and Drug Administration—not considered to be strong advocates of new-age approaches to medicine, typically—suggested recently that alternative and holistic therapies like acupuncture and chiropractors can play an important role in managing pain for patients. It’s actually part of the FDA’s ongoing plan to reduce the need for opioid pain medications in the U.S. The agency recommends that healthcare providers “become more familiar with alternative therapies for treating pain, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, …
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As we’ve told you previously, visionary urgent care operators are finding golden opportunities in empty spaces that in years past would not have been considered prime locations for healthcare facilities (banks, restaurants…). Now it looks like there could be similar opportunity in retail space being vacated in larger shopping centers and malls. An article in Business Insider suggests that big retail spaces, already finding it harder to fill vacancies with traditional shopping outlets, will have …
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