Practice

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, …

It wasn’t that long ago that we reported various health emergencies declared to help the country cope with the COVID-19 pandemic would be expiring this May. Now the United States Senate has passed a resolution to end the declarations immediately upon President Biden’s signature—which, according to an article published by Becker’s Hospital Review, he’s likely to provide. Different declarations cover different aspects of providing care. For a good overview, check out the summary created by …

Community media resources are rife with articles and posts aiming to help readers understand when it makes sense to visit a hospital emergency room vs urgent care vs a retail pharmacy clinic. The Chicago-area Daily Herald just ran one listing complaints appropriate for presentation to various settings, for example. (For the record, their list for urgent care includes allergic reaction, sore throat, ear infection, sprains, animal bites, flu symptoms, minor burns and injuries, and broken …

Just last week we told you the federal government is allowing COVID-19 emergency declarations to expire without renewal for the first time since they were enacted to help protect the public and healthcare professionals from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The first two—the national emergency declaration and the public health emergency—are set to expire on May 11. Now comes word that states are starting to rescind rules imposed during the pandemic. As reported by Becker’s …

As JUCM News readers know, research has shown that healthcare provider burnout increased significantly over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. New research published by Medscape, which also took part in the project, took a slightly alternate approach to the issue by asking 9,100 providers in 29 specialties not only about burnout, but also to assess their degree of happiness. While urgent care was not one of those specialties, it’s noteworthy that the specialties most …

It’s likely you’ve noticed seeing more patients with complaints related to their mental health and emotional wellbeing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. What may be more surprising, if you hadn’t noticed, is that the trend began well before 2020. New research published by Health Affairs shows that between 2006 and 2018 the percentage of visits to primary care related to mental health concerns increased from 11% to 16%. The authors attributed the increase …

Urgent care providers and operators are probably too aware of how common burnout is among healthcare professionals, especially since the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s true, of course, and it is a serious, ongoing concern. However, an article just published by Time magazine points out that patients may also be experiencing their own variety of burnout associated with healthcare. One factor the piece notes—having to wait weeks to see a provider when the patient …

Much of the U.S. is getting hammered with winter storms as of this writing, forcing some urgent care operators to decide whether it’s worth it (and safe) to conduct business as usual, close early, or not even open up for the day. Prevea Health in Wisconsin, for one, got ahead of the game by announcing in local media and its own platforms that they’d be closing all locations, including urgent care centers, from Wednesday afternoon …

New data from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker show that healthcare facilities, in general, are filing for higher-complexity care than in years past—but that urgent care providers buck the trend by filing such claims at a lower rate than their counterparts in the emergency room and traditional physician practices. Looking at claims for outpatient visits between 2004 and 2021 from the Merative MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database for nonelderly people, researchers determined that providers …