Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Liability of an Urgent Care Center for Third-Party Labs

Urgent message: While an urgent care center is responsible for the collection and safeguarding of clinical specimens, it’s generally not liable for the activities of a third-party lab that it sends a specimen to. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Experity Urgent care facilities regularly provide bloodwork and laboratory testing for their patients. These services may include allergy screening, diabetes testing, anemia screening, immunity testing, thyroid screening and monitoring, and …

Children Are Visiting Urgent Care in Growing Numbers—Is That Reflected in Your Practice?

JUCM has devoted a lot more space to covering aspects of providing urgent care for children. In this very issue there’s a new original research article on how long the SARS-CoV-2 virus lasts in children who may or may not be symptomatic (see page XX). And if you look at our Masthead, you’ll notice we’ve even engaged a pediatric urgent care provider to provide guidance and to help us ensure we’re conveying the right information …

FAQ: New E/M Guidelines

It’s 2021, and the new E/M guidelines for office visit codes are here. Hopefully, providers will feel some relief in the amount they need to document and can spend more time treating their patients. This month I’ll answer some of the questions I’ve received. Q. Do all three elements of medical decision-making (MDM) need to be at the same level for the code selected? A. No. Only the two highest elements need to be met …

Adapting Urgent Care Marketing Strategies to Include Mobile and Voice Technologies

Urgent message: As consumers become more dependent on their internet-connected smartphones for health information, urgent care centers must adapt their marketing content to mobile devices and include greater use of voice-enabled search and GPS-enabled marketing tactics. When personalized technology started to become widespread in the late 90s and early 2000s, it changed the way companies did business. They were forced to adapt to new marketing tactics and develop creative ways to fend off competitors. Customers …

Until the COVID-19 Vaccine Is Widely Distributed, Keep Testing—and Reporting

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their running count of data related to COVID-19 on December 7, a couple of subtle messages highly relevant to the urgent care provider stood out. Yes, the headlines went to the dramatic spike in cases, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions. However, the data also reveal something that emerged in Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in Preoperative Patients Tested in an Urgent Care Setting, the original research articles featured on …

Making Antibiotic Resistance Awareness a Priority—A COVID-Created Opportunity

It’s a conversation I’ve had endless times. One that I’ve honed and refined stepwise over time, and one that my patients often tell me they hadn’t considered before: the appropriate use and overuse of antibiotics. And right now, with patients hyper-focused on healthy immune systems, medical providers are uniquely positioned to build antibiotic stewardship into our diagnostic process and significantly increase resistance awareness nationwide. Process and Priorities A year ago, my approach to sharing a …

What’s New for RCM? Updates on Coding for COVID-19 Testing

As lab testing for COVID-19 continues to evolve, new products—and new CPT codes—continue to emerge. The latest tests combine COVID-19 testing with a test for influenza A and B. There are two types: one includes the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, the other includes the antigen test. The new CPT codes are: 87636 Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) and influenza virus …

New Lawsuits Re-examine Prescribing of PrEP in Urgent Care

Urgent message: Urgent care providers should take note of emerging class-action lawsuits when helping patients decide if PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV) is right for them. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care Few diseases ravage the body like HIV. As such, the healthcare world has been working for decades to develop treatments and methods to protect patients against it. One of the most promising treatments is pre-exposure prophylaxis …

Overcoming the Trauma of Making a Medical Error: Self-forgiveness is an Important Skill for Recovery

Have you ever made a mistake while practicing medicine that negatively affected somebody’s life? Even if you haven’t yet, you probably will if you practice long enough. Have you thought of how you will recover afterwards? Fatal errors can affect healthcare providers all through their career.1 Self-forgiveness after a medical error facilitates open mindedness, recovery from trauma, relief of mental and emotional anguish, re-engagement, growth, and regained appreciation for life.2 It is prudent for healthcare …

2020 Be Remembered for—Beyond the Obvious?

If you surveyed Google data for 2020, you’d probably find that some of the most oft-used terms of the year were pandemic, covid, coronavirus, or even social distancing, work from home, and new normal. Let’s just say it’s been a year of seismic cultural change not only in the United States and across the globe, but also within the urgent care industry. While, clearly, there have been many hardships and tragedies this year, urgent care …