Practice Management
Anyone with a working knowledge of urgent care services knows it’s typical for an urgent care center to offer x-rays on site. And even if the general public has a vague awareness of that, they could probably stand some reminding—especially if you have the opportunity to also let them know that you’re investing in your business so you can take even better care of them. Graham County Urgent Care and Family Practice in North Carolina, …
Read More
Comarketing different aspects of your urgent care operation may not only be possible, but downright advisable according to an article published recently by Physicians Practice. Most obviously, devising (or more to the point, paying an agency to devise) separate strategies for your urgent care and primary care services, for example, is obviously more costly. However, the article also points out that such an approach disregards the fact that patient needs can be complex and while …
Read More
Just a couple of weeks ago, we relayed that an investigation showed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois failed to audit at least 25% of provider directories to ensure they were current and that their website maintained current provider information. The upshot was that your urgent care center might not show up when BCBS members searched for covered practices to visit. Now the Journal of the American Medical Association has published a study revealing that …
Read More
Google apparently thinks it’s time to ratchet up its efforts to get a piece of the U.S. healthcare marketplace, as it just entered into an agreement with virtual care vendor Pager. According to the announcement, Pager will serve as an integrated service provider and technology partner, and support Google Cloud’s Healthcare application programming interface (API), dialog flow, and data platform. In short, the partnership is intended to enhance Google Cloud’s healthcare application interface through Pager’s …
Read More
It’s unlikely a patient would think to tell you this directly, but new research published by the journal Health Affairs shows that in the COVID-19 era physicians and nurses are more trusted for health information than federal, state, and local health agencies. While 37% of 4,208 participants in a telephone survey said they trust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide solid information, 54% said they trust physicians “a great deal” while 48% …
Read More
It’s more of an issue internationally right now, but 18 U.S. states have reported cases of the emerging omicron variant XBB.1.16. While XBB.1.5 is still the most prevalent variant here, the World Health Organization reports that XBB.1.16 has been reported in 22 countries and has become the dominant variant in some of those, already increasing hospitalizations and deaths. XBB variants 1.9.1, XBB, and XBB.1.5.1 are also on the rise domestically, raising concerns that severe cases …
Read More
Physicians and executives with close ties to urgent care are prominent among Becker’s Hospital Review’s list of Black Healthcare Leaders to Know for 2023. As Becker’s reasons, diversity among providers and healthcare organization leadership “leads to more informed, personalized care and improved outcomes” while those chosen to be on the list have demonstrated an ability to foster “positive patient experiences, paving the way for the next generation of leaders, and promoting health equity.” Among them …
Read More
You might assume that utilization of telehealth continued what had been steady growth in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. You’d be mistaken, however. In fact, telehealth claim lines actually plummeted by 76% from 2020 to 2021, according to the FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index 2023 report. At the same time, it goes on to say, urgent care claim lines jumped 14% while ambulatory surgical centers dropped 7% and emergency room …
Read More
Efficient time management is one of the signature attributes—and biggest draws—of an urgent care visit. A new study published by JAMA Health Forum could be viewed as a caveat for urgent care providers, however, as it suggests that shorter visits to primary care physicians seem to result in more poor prescribing decisions than longer visits do—at least for certain categories of medications and among patients from certain demographic groups. The cross-sectional study, which reflects the …
Read More
Urgent message: While pneumonia in general continues to be a common diagnosis in children in the United States, relatively few studies have sought to determine the signs and symptoms that help to predict occult bacterial pneumonia. Awareness of associated signs and symptoms may assist the urgent care provider in proceeding more quickly to a correct diagnosis. Alyssa Whited, PA-C and Christina Gardner, PA-C CASE PRESENTATION A 5-year-old male with no significant past medical history presented …
Read More