Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Improving the Patient Experience by Thinking Differently About Waiting

Urgent message: Attracting and retaining urgent care patients entails more than reducing the total duration of patient waits. It also requires understanding and managing patient expectations and perceptions of waiting. MICHAEL BURKE, MBA, and GARRETT BOMBA, MD People often respond irrationally in waiting situations. How else can we explain the fact that people are routinely more satisfied with a clearly explained 30-minute wait than with an uncertain 20-minute wait? It is not rational, but it …

Investment Trends in Urgent Care: A Mergers and Acquisitions Roundtable

Urgent message: Urgent care is a highly fragmented industry considered ripe for consolidation. A handful of high-profile deals have made 2015 the biggest year for mergers and acquisitions yet, but high valuations, oversaturated markets, changing buyer and seller expectations, and structural changes attributable to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will influence urgent care deal-making in coming years. ALEXANDER NATHANSON, MD Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the U.S. urgent care industry have historically consisted …

Implications of Patients Recording Urgent Care Provider Encounters

Urgent message: The ubiquity of smartphones increases the risk that patients will openly or covertly record interactions with their physicians. Urgent care operators should understand the legal and privacy implications and protect themselves with appropriate policies and training. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Smartphones with cameras and audio and video recorders that can be easily concealed in a pocket, purse, or backpack are now used by roughly 71% of Americans, including 86% of …

The Role of Urgent Care in an Integrated Care System: Insights from Intermountain Healthcare

Urgent message: This exclusive interview with Intermountain Medical Group Chief Executive Officer Linda Leckman, MD, illustrates how urgent care can improve access and clinical outcomes while reducing costs for patients in a system that integrates providers, hospitals, and health insurance using a shared electronic medical record and capitated payment. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Introduction In the evolving U.S. health-care system, individual providers, ancillary facilities, hospitals, and payors are joining together in connected systems …

Six Elements of a Winning Patient Experience

Urgent message: Successful urgent care centers depend on repeat visits from loyal patients, but if patients do not like the experience provided, do not value it, or do not think it meets their needs, they will not come back. Cultivating a loyal following entails understanding and building a service offering around the factors that attract patients and keep them coming back. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Urgent care is differentiated from other medical practices …

Recognizing Employee Disengagement and Taking Steps to Re-engage

Urgent message: Employee disengagement is pandemic in the American workplace. At urgent care centers, operators have to work especially hard to keep frontline staff members motivated. Re-engaging employees starts with a strong management culture committed to establishing affinity with employees and ensuring that systems and processes support day-to-day operations. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity For many urgent care operators—clinically adept physician–owners who are likely green as entrepreneurs—it can be sobering to realize just how …

Image Check: Impact of Employee Appearance on the Patient Experience

Urgent message: Patients often infer quality on the basis of outward appearances. Adopting a policy that addresses clothing, grooming, and body art can help balance the need to project a professional image in the urgent care center and to ensure workplace safety with employees’ desire to express themselves. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Remember the popular 1990s advertising slogan “Image is everything”? What was back then a trendy catchphrase created to peddle expensive …

A Process Approach to Differentiating Your Urgent Care Brand by Ensuring That Patients Leave Satisfied

Urgent message: Rapid growth of the urgent care industry has led to increased competition but little differentiation among urgent care providers, which consumers tend to view as “pretty much the same.” The opportunity for urgent care is thus to foster patient loyalty by creating differentiated brands, which starts by taking a process approach to the patient experience. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Urgent care is maturing into a big business. In 2015, the industry’s nearly …

The Sword and the Shield: Best Hiring Practices for Urgent Care Facilities

Urgent message: It is imperative that urgent care centers utilize the various tools at their disposal to recruit the best candidates, while implementing best practices that mitigate the potential for lawsuits. DAMARIS L. MEDINA, ESQ. Urgent care is one of the fastest growing segments of American health care. Historically, many urgent care facilities were considered small businesses because they employed fewer than 15 people, making them exempt from certain hiring discrimination claims under The Federal …

A Return on Investment Approach to Urgent Care Marketing

Urgent message: In a volume-driven business like urgent care, marketing should be viewed as an investment with a financial return that can be measured in order to allocate the center’s advertising dollars among the tactics most effective in generating patient revenue. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Success in the “business” of urgent care boils down to one factor: “feet through the door.” That’s because once a center’s fixed costs are covered, each additional …