Practice Management
In spite of millions of deaths and hospitalizations, as well as economic hardships and general inconveniences, there has been a segment of the U.S. population that believes COVID-19 is no more of a threat than seasonal influenza. Now that vaccines have been shown to be effective and COVID is no longer in the headlines every day, it’s possible more people than ever think that. New data published in a research letter published by the Journal …
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JUCM and JUCM News readers know that acuity degradation is a major concern in the urgent care industry. For a multitude of reasons, too many patients visiting urgent care centers are referred elsewhere when, on paper, they really should be able to receive care at the UC level. Now Experity Chief Operating Officer and regular JUCM contributor Monte Sandler has authored an article for HIT Consultant that proposes solutions. Increasing training opportunities for advanced-practice providers …
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Google, Facebook, and maybe even Twitter and Instagram have become common avenues for urgent care operators to reach new patients online. Visits related to another app are exploding all of a sudden, however. According to an article published online by FIERCE Healthcare, bookings from the online provider search/appointment app Zocdoc have grown by 80%, month over month while the number of UCCs has grown almost 40% month over month. That reflects visits to more than …
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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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