JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Maybe you read my columns in the two previous issues of JUCM and had a brief moment of self-awareness. Maybe one of your co-workers put them in your mailbox. Did you actually ask your co-workers and subordinates if you were the “cancer” I was talking about? They are not going to be honest. They care little about you and fear for their jobs, and so, are hardly going to …
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Public Relations in Urgent Care: A Step-by-Step Plan for Success
Urgent Message: Getting local media attention can drive patients to an urgent care center’s doors. Applying best PR practices can produce results and conserve marketing dollars. MARCIA HORN NOYES Despite the meteoric rise in urgent care center openings over the past decade, media outlets indicate that story pitches received from urgent care providers pale in comparison to those submitted by hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. Yet urgent care medicine remains fertile ground for quick and compelling …
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Understanding Your Cost Per Patient
Urgent message: Assessing the true cost per patient is key to determining which pricing model will generate the most revenue for an urgent care center. JORDAN TODD RICE, MD A cost-per-patient analysis may not work for every urgent care center owner, but this article is intended to give JUCM readers the basic tools they need to understand the formulas. It can also serve as a baseline for discussions with urgent care center staff, executives, managers, …
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Enhancing Profits with Travel Health Care
Urgent message: Adding travel health services to an urgent care center can increase a practice’s income and enhance its client base. LYNNE BUNNELL, RN Providing pre-travel health services in an urgent care clinic makes good business sense. The setting is natural to patients who want to be seen for care just days before leaving on a trip. It also works well for those who are more flexible in scheduling visits because their trips are planned …
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Telemedicine’s Impact on Urgent Care: What You Need to Know
Urgent message: Telemedicine represents a new growth opportunity for urgent care centers that want to attract consumers looking for on-demand medicine. IAN VASQUEZ, MBA Urgent care providers are well positioned to take advantage of new market opportunities being driven by consumers and employers who increasingly look to the Internet for on-demand medicine. Telemedicine represents one such opportunity. This article will help you understand applications of telemedicine to urgent care and assess key risks and benefits …
Read MoreDeveloping Data: April, 2012
These data from the 2010 Urgent Care Benchmarking Survey are based on responses of 1,691 US urgent care centers; 32% were UCA members. The survey was limited to “full-fledged urgent care centers” accepting walk-ins during all hours of operation; having a licensed provider and x-ray and lab equipment onsite; the ability to administer IV fluids and perform minor procedures; and having minimal business hours of seven days per week, four hours per day. In this …
Read MoreMedicare Modifier PD, Fracture Visit Coding, Coding for Emergent Transport, ‘Big Ticket’ Reimbursement Codes, Medicare CLIA-Waived Codes
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q. What is the new modifier PD? A. If your urgent care center is owned by a hospital or health system, then Medicare has a new modifier for your center. The new HCPCS Level II Modifier PD is defined as a “diagnostic or related non-diagnostic item or service provided in a wholly owned or wholly operated entity to a patient who is admitted as an inpatient within 3 days, or …
Read MoreCuring ‘Cancer’
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP So you missed the “cancer.” Maybe you still don’t even know you missed it. At this point the patient (your business) is dying and you plod along unaware of the impending doom, like a smoker with a chronic cough. Your business is losing weight, its cheeks are sunken, skin sallow, as it grows weaker each passing month. One day soon it will start coughing up blood, and then it …
Read MoreWorkplace Bullying and its Costs to the Urgent Care Operation
Urgent message: More than one third of U.S. employees say they have been bullied in the workplace. Does your practice have a policy in place to thwart this insidious problem? If not, it should. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MACC What is the Difference Between Diversity and Tolerance? According to one definition, diversity is anything that makes you different while tolerance is not persecuting people who are different. Many urgent care operations strive for a unified …
Read MoreMissing a ‘Cancer’
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP My worst fear: I miss a cancer. Of all things to miss, I worry about this the most. Miss a myocardial infarction, stroke, or appendicitis and you figure it out quickly because it smacks you right in the face. Conversely, cancer simmers along. A few months or even years go by and everything seems fine, then all hell breaks loose. The symptoms reach epic – if not life-threatening – …
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