Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Benefits of Utilizing Limited-Scope X-Ray Techs in the Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: X-ray is an essential component of urgent care operations. Amid rising costs and staffing shortages, limited-scope x-ray techs may be a viable alternative to licensed radiology techs to perform imaging in the clinic. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc One of the unexpected changes we’ve seen come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is the difficulty urgent care centers face in hiring licensed radiologic technologists (RTs). Even hospitals struggle to hire, offering sign-on bonuses of …

How Urgent Care Can Address Its Degrading Scope of Practice

Urgent message: Founded by emergency medicine doctors on a mission to keep nonemergent patients out of the ED, urgent care has been forced by changes in reimbursement policies to emphasize high productivity and labor cost savings—ultimately leading to overall fewer procedures and thus a lower acuity level for urgent care centers. Benjamin Barlow, MD; Monte Sandler; Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc The urgent care community has faced many challenges over the past several years. The largest …

STIs Are Epidemic in the U.S.—but How Many of Those Patients Are Going to Urgent Care?

If you read this issue’s cover article on how important urgent care is in fighting the current surge of sexually transmitted infections in the United States, you know that we are in the midst of an STI epidemic. (And if you didn’t read it, you should turn to page X to do so after you’re done here.) Sure, there have been demographic shifts in healthcare preferences; more Americans than ever (especially in the younger …

Urgent Care Is Correcting Course on Antibiotic Prescribing

Just 4 years ago, a Research Letter published by JAMA Internal Medicine painted an unflattering picture of the antibiotic prescribing habits in U.S. physician offices, urgent care centers, retail clinics, and emergency rooms.1 Urgent care took its lumps along with other settings—but in response, collectively, also took the issue seriously and set to work on correcting course. In introducing their Antibiotic Stewardship program, The Urgent Care Association and the College of Urgent Care Medicine noted …

Who Can Take X-Rays in an Urgent Care Center?

Urgent message: Given that x-ray is a differentiating feature of “urgent care” and the current challenges in recruiting and retaining licensed RTs, a logical question for urgent care operators is the extent to which x-ray tasks can be delegated. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Consulting and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. “The only people who can touch an x-ray machine are those who are certified …

Where Do You Start When Starting Your Urgent Care?

Heather Real There are many reasons to start your own urgent care, whether it be feeding your entrepreneurial spirit, investing in an industry that has proven to be stable and growing (even amidst multiple economic crises in the last three decades), or responding to the needs of a community. For many, the reasons include at least some of these, and more. Realizing the desire to take on this project is the first step; however, there …

What Qualifies Someone to Take X-Rays in the Urgent Care Center? It All Depends on Where You’re Located

X-rays are high on the list of services patients expect urgent care centers to provide when needed. Currently, however, a dearth of qualified technicians can make guaranteeing that they can do so somewhat challenging. The November issue of JUCM will start an in-depth discussion of how the industry can best approach meeting that challenge for the benefit of the patient and the individual operator. One essential part of that discussion will be answering the question …

New ICD-10-CM Codes in Effect as of October 1

It’s time for the major release of ICD-10-CM that occurs on October 1 every year. For 2023, this update reflects 1,468 new codes, 251 deleted codes, 35 revised codes, and 36 codes converted to parent. Like the last few updates, Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) are front and center. SDOH are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, …

DOT Physicals and Urine Drug Testing Represent a Growth Opportunity for Urgent Care Centers

Urgent message: Demand for DOT-related services for truck drivers is soaring. Urgent care centers can augment traditional insurance-paid visits with B2B relationships while serving a historically unhealthy population. Alan A. Ayers is President of Experity Consulting and Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. The commercial trucking industry in the United States is massive (Table 1). The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requires that all commercial motor vehicle drivers receive a physical every …

The Data Are Clear: Urgent Care Visits Almost Always Suffice for Low-Acuity Cervical Trauma

Reducing the need for patients to visit hospital emergency rooms (as well as the associated cost) is an essential attribute and key selling point of the urgent care industry. Remarkably few studies have been conducted to confirm this in practice, however. When they are undertaken, they tend to prove that this isn’t just hype; proper utilization of urgent care really can preclude the need for many patients to go to the ED, and that really …