Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

New Study: Youth Sports Injuries Always in Season

Visits to the emergency room for sports injuries in children between the ages of 5 and 18 years rose every year from 2001 to 2013, with three quarters of those injuries attributed to football, soccer, baseball, and basketball, according to new data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. All told, there were nearly half a million emergent injuries in 100 hospital emergency departments during the study period—translating to an …

Harris Poll is Good News for Docs, Great Intel for Urgent Care

A new Harris Poll found that 88% of patients are “satisfied” with their last visit to the doctor, with 53% saying they are “very satisfied.” Digging deeper, though, you find data that can make or break that perception. A provider’s knowledge, training, and expertise were the most important attributes, but more than half of respondents also said the doctor’s ability to access their medical history, time spent with the doctor, and good communication matter significantly. …

Can Urgent Care Help Abate Astronomical Spike in Health Costs?

Families in the U.S. could be spending up to 45% of their household income on healthcare costs within the next two decades, according to a new study from the Pioneer Institute of Boston. The best-case scenario, according to the report, would be that health-insurance premiums rise by 4% annually, along with the same rate of increase for out-of-pocket costs. By 2035, those expenses would consume nearly a quarter of the family’s budget, up from 16% in …

‘Patient Experience’ Trend May Favor Urgent Care

Healthcare payment reform may be giving urgent care a leg up on the local emergency room, according to a new white paper from Press Ganey. While positive “patient experience” scores enable hospitals to collect greater reimbursement, tight margins require sharper focus on clinical care than ever before. In addition, pressure to keep household expenses down is pushing many patients (ie, customers) to consider their options more carefully, especially for lower-acuity complaints like those tailor-made for …

CDC, ACP Warn Against Wayward Antibiotic Prescribing

Old habits and the pleadings of sick patients continue to move physicians to prescribe antibiotics for patients who don’t actually need them, according to a new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Physicians. Both are urging physicians to employ antibiotics sparingly during cold and flu season. Antibiotics are prescribed at more than 100 million adult ambulatory care visits every year—including visits to urgent care—but only about half …

Take the Blinders Off Your Eyes—and Ears

URGENT MESSAGE: Over time, urgent care operators become desensitized by what they see and hear every day—a serious challenge to continual improvement and, therefore, success. In this second installment of her guest blog on “blinders,” Lou Ellen Horwitz describes how what is said in an urgent care center influences patient perceptions. She provides practical suggestions on coaching staff to be mindful of their words, volume, and audience when engaging in business and nonbusiness conversation. Lou …

UCA Webinar: The Wisdom of Having an On-Site Lab

The decision to operate a lab on site at your urgent care center is not one to be taken lightly. While saying “yes” would lead to another layer of overhead and regulation, it could also make life easier for your patients—possibly meaning they’ll become loyal customers. Besides that, though, how much space would it occupy? How much volume would the lab need for it to be a worthwhile endeavor? CLIA specialist Milly Keeler will answer …

ACA Is Officially Repealed—Temporarily

After months of legislative back-and-forth, and as we previewed here last month, the US House of Representatives has passed new legislation that essentially repeals the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”). The Senate already voted to approve the bill, called the Restoring America’s Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, after implementing changes to the original version. Proponents of the new bill—which President Obama has already promised to veto—say it would cut the federal deficit by $516 billion …

Kaiser Trying Out Virtual Urgent Care Visits

Urgent care is about to get even more accessible for members of Kaiser Permanente Northwest. The plan is offering phone or video visits with no copay for patients who don’t feel up to an in-person encounter in the urgent care center. Appointments to video chat with a provider can be made on the Kaiser website and conducted with any smartphone, laptop, or desktop computer that has a video camera. The providers will have access to members’ …

To See a Brighter Future, Take Off Your Blinders!

URGENT MESSAGE: Ongoing success requires that the urgent care operator keep his or her eyes open for opportunities to improve the patient experience. The challenge is that the operator can become desensitized by what he/she sees every day. In this guest blog, Lou Ellen Horwitz explains that effective operators must “take their blinders off” in order to experience the operation the way patients do. Lou Ellen Horwitz is Director of Learning at Seattle-based Immediate Clinic. …