Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Employer Liability for Flu Infection

Urgent message: While urgent care centers benefit from exaggerated seasonal demand when a flu epidemic strikes, the risk is that the center’s own employees will get infected by contagious patients, incur medical costs, and lose time from work when they’re needed most. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer for Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Introduction It’s not uncommon for an urgent care …

Conjunctivitis: When the Eyes Have It, How Many Patients Turn to Urgent Care?

“Care must be taken to differentiate bacterial infections from viral diseases and allergic conditions.”1 Things don’t get much plainer than that statement, quoted from an article published in Review Of Ophthalmology back in 2006. And yet, care is not always taken to differentiate bacterial infections of the eye from viral diseases and allergic conditions. That was made abundantly clear in this month’s cover article, Evaluation of Infectious Conjunctivitis by Clinical Evaluation and Novel Diagnostics (page …

Be Ready for the ICD-10-CM 2020 Updates

October 1, 2019 introduces 273 new diagnosis codes, 21 deactivated codes, and 35 code description revisions to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification set, bringing the total ICD-10-CM code count to 72,184. The following describes those that are most relevant to the urgent care provider. Chapter 8: Diseases of the Ear and Mastoid Process (H60-H95) There is just a small change to note here, where code H81.4, “Vertigo of central origin” was …

Competing for Patients in a Digitally Connected World

Urgent message: In today’s tech-driven, digital-everything society, industry-leading consumer companies all leverage technology to reducing friction—ie, steps, obstacles, and unnecessary effort—in making their products and services fast, convenient, and accessible. The urgent care operation that can align with this growing trend and leverage technology to root out friction will win loyalty and patronage from today’s digitally native healthcare consumer. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice …

The Millennial Conundrum: Fostering an Engaged Multigenerational Urgent Care Workforce

Urgent message: Are Millennial employees breathing fresh energy into the urgent care workplace or are they a new breed of workers who don’t go along with established workplace norms? Your perspective may influence how you fair in their ascendance. Rachel Sossoman, MSHR, SPHR, SHRM-SCP Introduction Millennials—Americans born between 1981 and 1996—became the largest demographic group in the U.S. workforce at 56 million strong in 2017; this year, they will overtake Baby Boomers as the largest …

#MeToo in the Urgent Care Center: When the Perpetrator is a Patient

Urgent message: Most urgent care operators are well aware of the need for strong, clear policies on sexual harassment among team members. Your responsibility to protect your employees doesn’t end there, though. Situations in which the harasser is a patient present unique challenges—and consequences. Suzanne C. Jones and Roma B. Patel INTRODUCTION The #MeToo movement may have begun with high-profile actresses in Hollywood publicly acknowledging years of inappropriate behavior at the hands of powerful men …

Physician Assignment Searches: Urgent Care is on the Rise, Hospitals on the Decline

This is an interesting time to be in the healthcare field. We keep hearing (and are starting to see the effects of) a serious shortage in available physicians across multiple settings, but most direly in primary care. To compensate, many practices are relying more on the skills and high-level training of nurse practitioners and physician assistants, now known collectively as advanced practice providers (APPs). At the same time, consumers continue to demonstrate a growing preference …

Utilizing Credit Card Pre-authorization to Optimize Revenue

With the continued rise of the cost of healthcare and higher out-of-pocket costs to the patient, urgent care centers are finding more patients struggling to pay their deductible. The process of billing patients for deductibles and other patient responsibility can be a long, drawn out procedure resulting in significant costs, delays, write-offs and slower collection time for the urgent care center. The traditional method of sending out patient statements and waiting and hoping for patients …

The Consequences of a Medical Provider Quitting Without Notice

Urgent message: Patients and communities rely on access to urgent care to augment primary care shortages and decant over-crowded Emergency Departments. A provider who quits without notice causes scheduling disruptions which could be considered “patient abandonment.” Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine Once a medical provider has accepted a patient into her practice, she is …

Creating the ‘Ideal’ Urgent Care Experience

Urgent message: For owner-operators truly committed to creating “the ideal urgent care experience”—a thriving operating model that benefits patients, employees, and investors alike —a commitment to operational excellence, a perfecting of the patient experience, and the embrace of an empowered, engaged employee culture must form the bedrock principles of their practice. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Driven largely by millennials and Gen Xer’s who place a premium on convenience, alongside Baby Boomers utilizing their newly …