JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Over the years, I have worked with a variety of providers who exhibited significantly disparate skill levels in their ability to manage patient flow. Practicing good medicine is a given; some have been amazingly intelligent providers who make House look like a PG1 psychiatry resident from a non-accredited medical school. Their only downside was that they were pathetically slow, or communicated at the level of a mollusk. Effective and …
Read MoreDeveloping Data: November, 2008
In early 2008, UCA revamped its annual survey in conjunction with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University with the goal of assuring that the UCA Benchmarking Committee’s efforts produced a scientifically valid report. Over the coming months in Developing Data, JUCM will present some of the findings from this landmark survey, to which 436 urgent care centers responded. In this issue: How large are urgent care centers? It is important to note that …
Read MoreICD-9 Changes in 2008
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q.I noticed that I am getting rejections for the code for fever (780.6). Do I need to add another diagnosis code to get paid? A.There are numerous separate issues related to this code: First, every year ICD-9 updates go into effect on Octo- ber This year was no exception. This code is now sub- categorized as follows: 60 Fever, unspecified 61 Fever presenting with conditions classified elsewhere 62 Postprocedural fever …
Read MoreManaging Through Change
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP The urgent care sector in particular, and healthcare in general, is undergoing a sea change—a phrase that has its origins in Shakespeare’s The Tempest: Full fathom five thy father lies Of his bones are coral made Those are pearls that were his eyes Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Shakespeare was referring to the corpse of Ferdinand’s father being …
Read MoreHedging Your Bets: The Art of Market Segmentation
If you have more than one child or grew up with at least one sibling, you have probably experienced “segmentation.” That is, you have most likely used different tactics and strategies in dealing with each of your children or you were treated somewhat differently than your siblings. Segmentation within the urgent care occupational health market follows the same principle; a communication technique that is effective with one audience may not work as well with another. …
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The Front Office: Window to Your Practice
Urgent message: Patients will return again and again—and tell their friends, too—if your center’s manager and employees are unfailingly courteous, com petent, and thorough. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, Experity If you’re planning to own and operate an urgent care center, you’re probably not thinking about managing an administrative office. Instead, you envision yourself hurrying between exam rooms, suturing cuts, setting fractures, and dispensing orders. Digging your way out of paperwork, refereeing staff disputes, tracking …
Read MoreDeveloping Data: October, 2008
In Developing Data, JUCM will offer results not only from UCA’s annual benchmarking surveys, but also from research conducted elsewhere to present an expansive view of the healthcare marketplace in which urgent care seeks to strengthen its presence. In this issue: How did patients in a national study of visits to emergency departments in the United States rate their experience according to select key indicators of satisfaction? One can surmise from the data that participants …
Read MoreNebulizer Treatment Coding and Take-backs on 99051
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q.Payors do not seem to want to pay on the code E0572 (aerosol compressor, adjustable pressure, light duty for intermittent use). What can we do to get payment? A.This code is not for simple use of the aerosol compressor, but is actually used to code for sale of the actual nebulizer machine. Thus, this code would rarely be appropriate for use in the urgent care setting. Q.How do we get …
Read MoreOccupational Health Sales and Marketing as a Team Sport
A thinly veiled secret in most urgent care clinics is the marginal role that sales and marketing plays in the mores of these organizations. Indeed, healthcare sales professionals tend to be like your Uncle Fred: it’s always nice to see him, but he’s not really woven into the inner fabric of your family. Why? To a large extent, urgent care owners have a hard time merging the healthcare side of their clinic(s) with the business …
Read MoreMedical Search Firms: Match Making Comes to Medicine
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Recently, a friend called to tell me he was going to the airport to meet a woman he met online. He described her as tall, blonde, athletic and, based upon her e-mails and witty repartee, very smart. He brought the photo she e-mailed so he would recognize her when she walked through the gate. Oddly, he never did see her walk off the plane; however, he felt a tug …
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