Practice Management
New Jersey’s largest healthcare system just signed on to take part in the new Emergency Triage, Treat and Transport (ET3) pilot program being rolled out by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As reported by New Jersey Business Magazine, patients in need of EMS services at Hackensack Meridian Health’s Hackensack University Medical Center and JFK University Medical Center will now have the option to be taken by EMS to urgent care instead of the …
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HCA Healthcare has reached an agreement to buy 41 Texas urgent care centers from FastMed. The deal, which is expected to close over the summer, includes 19 FastMed and 22 MedPost locations in Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso—all told, home to some 6.7 million Texans. At present, HCA operates 268 urgent care centers across the country, while FastMed operates nearly 200 spread across five states. Terms of the deal have not been …
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With incidence of sexually transmitted infection at all-time highs in the United States, you may have already noticed an increase in patients presenting with symptoms concerning for gonorrhea, syphilis, or other STIs. And if you haven’t, it’s likely you will. Historically, patients have found urgent care to be an ideal setting for concerns they may be hesitant to raise with their “regular” healthcare provider. Further, as JUCM and JUCM News readers know, many patients now …
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At the outset of a quality-improvement project at Intermountain Health’s urgent care network, 48% of patients received a prescription for antibiotics; by the end of the project, that figure was down to 33%. As reported in a paper published by JAMA Network Open, the interventions credited with that reduction included educating providers and patients; employing various EMR tools; a benchmarking dashboard that was accessible to all providers; and a media campaign. The data reflected 493,724 …
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Patients come to your urgent care center for very important, personal, and specific reasons—most often because they’re ill or injured and need your help. So, it’s only logical that they would need a compelling reason to leave before they’ve even been seen by one of your providers. According to the results of a survey by the Urgent Care Association, the top reason is one that could be controllable to a large degree; wait time was …
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Urgent care providers who have achieved doctorate-level degrees can only introduce themselves or be referred to as “Dr.” if they’ve earned MD or DO status, according to a new law just passed in Georgia. Predictably, groups like the American Society of Anesthesiologists applaud the move while the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, for one, objects, as reported by MedPage Today. The law mandates that specific licenses and or/degrees be specified on ID badges, in advertisements, …
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Regular readers of JUCM News and JUCM know that multiple drugstore chains, big box retailers, and others have tried hard to steal business away from urgent care. While pharmacy companies have had a modicum of success in drawing patients concerned they could have strep throat and the like, no one has really been able to establish a substantial foothold in the way urgent care has. That doesn’t stop other companies from trying, though. In fact, …
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The Urgent Care Association has designated May as Urgent Care Awareness Month, complete with a campaign dedicated to raising awareness of the industry among the public, including policymakers at every level. And while the aphorism that the rising tide lifts all the boats is usually true, UCA’s efforts will be multiplied with every individual urgent care operator that takes part in the effort. The Association has created a library of materials to assist, including a …
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Not too long ago, we shared news about a Mayo Clinic Proceedingsstudy that found only 57.1% of respondents would choose to become a physician again. That should have come as no surprise, in light of other pieces of the data—particularly the revelation that 62.8% of respondents claimed at least one manifestation of burnout. Now comes news that many clinicians may be either dealing with or trying to prevent going down that road by cutting back …
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JUCM News readers know that state and federal regulations adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic are being rescinded or are expiring in waves, with direct and indirect effects on urgent care. With May 11 marking the end of the official federal public health emergency, the Association of American Medical Colleges’ AAMC News reports that some 17 million people formerly covered via emergency Medicaid enrollment are now likely to lose that coverage, with approximately 6.8 million not …
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