Practice Management
Urgent care centers that are dipping a toe into the telehealth pool may be helping to set standards that will become common practice in years to come. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine predicts that telehealth will continue to grow, becoming more prevalent in teaching hospitals and opening the door for better chronic disease management. The article identifies three trends fueling its growth: Transformation from an application that increases access to …
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We told you earlier that residents of Miami have been infected with Zika virus transmitted by local mosquitos, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to dispatch an emergency response team and revise its guidance on testing and prevention. Regardless of how likely or unlikely further domestic exposure may be, media attention and summer travel plans are likely to drive more patients with concerns about Zika to urgent centers. As such, operators are advised …
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William Rodney, MD couldn’t jump fast enough when he found out the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) would be raising Medicaid primary care payments to Medicare levels. His urgent care practice (featured here previously; see One Year In, Latino-focused Clinic Doubles in Size) took in enough additional fees to create an outreach clinic for bilingual uninsured patients and to provide x-rays, ultrasound, and other services for underserved communities in Tennessee. Now he’s worried about …
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Credentialing is a process used to evaluate the qualifications and practice history of a doctor, including a review of completed education, training, residency, and licenses. It also includes any certifications issued by a board in the doctor’s area of specialty. Many urgent care centers assume their providers are fully credentialed; however, it is advisable to do your due diligence when engaging a new physician to ensure he or she has the necessary credentials. Even if …
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A new study by Neilsen Strategic Health Perspectives and the Council of Accountable Physician Practices affirms that outcomes are better when multiple providers who’ve treated the same patient share information. However, it also points out that communication between providers suffers when an urgent care center is outside of a health system. This represents a lost opportunity, as just 38% of physician offices provide access to an urgent cate center through the same medical group. Interestingly, …
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New data published in JAMA Pediatrics indicate that far too many children suspected of having a concussion are evaluated first in a primary care office. Between 2010 and 2014, 81.9% of young patients ultimately seen at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) had their first concussion-related healthcare visit in the primary care setting. Urgent care was a nonfactor, as the remainder sought care first in the emergency room (not surprising, given that the data set was …
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Six months after it started offering video visits through Doctor on Demand and American Well, UnitedHealthcare says it expects to “see” 20 million patients that way by the end of 2016. More than half of the visits, to date, have been for respiratory issues. Statistically, the average user is a 31-year-old female. UnitedHealthcare says the vast majority of employers it covers like the idea, but have concerns about how many of their workers will actually …
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With the number of domestic cases of Zika infection still growing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a new interim guidance for diagnosing the virus. The latest issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report notes that “on the basis of newly available data, CDC recommends that Zika virus rRT-PCR be performed on urine collected <14 days after onset of symptoms in patients with suspected Zika virus disease.” The new directive should help …
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Nearly 2 million Americans have an opioid use disorder. While there are many causative factors behind that staggering number, Steven J. Stack, MD, president of the American Medical Association, says “the opioid epidemic…far too often has started from a prescription pad.” In an open letter to all physicians in every setting across the country, Stack proposed seven steps physicians can take to help reverse the tide: “Avoid initiating opioids for new patients with chronic noncancer …
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Overlook the simple things, and all the technology and medication in the world won’t keep patients—or healthcare providers—healthy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just launched a campaign called Clean Hands Count, aimed at preventing healthcare-associated infections through basic hygiene practices in all healthcare settings, including urgent care. One common misconception the program aims to correct: that antibiotic hand sanitizers are the safest. Rather, use of antibiotic-based cleansers increases the risk of antibiotic resistance; …
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