Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Loss Management/Injury Management and Rehabilitation

Urgent message: A loss management/injury management product line will further broaden a practice’s range of services (and revenue sources) while also creating a platform for referral of new patients. Donna Lee Gardner, RN, MS, MBA As discussed previously in JUCM, a clinic that seeks to broaden its clinical services—and, thus, its revenue streams—by offering comprehensive urgent care occupational medicine (UCOM) services will provide access to five distinct, but complementary, product lines: • health surveillance • …

Minding Your (Urgent Care) Ps and Qs

Urgent message: Appropriate attention to place, product, price, promotion, people, and quality help ensure the right approach to facilitating the success of your practice. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, Experity Bartenders in British pubs have a custom of reminding eager patrons to “mind their Ps and Qs”—to watch how many pints and quarts they consume, so as to avoid creating a tab they cannot pay. To assure a satisfactory return on their investment, urgent care …

Playing to Win: Maximizing Profits in Urgent Care

Urgent message: The financial health of your practice depends on a balanced approach that takes into account both increasing income and reducing expenses. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, Experity From an economic perspective, the independent urgent care owner/operator has a dual goal: to build the long-term value of the medical practice while maximizing cash that can be taken out of the business in the form of income. To achieve both of these goals—to expand revenues …

Creating a Health Surveillance Product Line

Urgent message: Keeping patients able to perform their jobs is critical to the success of an urgent care occupational medicine program. Donna Lee Gardner, RN, MS, MBA To best meet the needs of employers, an urgent care occupational medicine (UCOM) clinic should feature five basic product lines: • health surveillance • injury/loss management • rehabilitation • prevention services • on-site services This article will address the first of these product lines, health surveillance; the other …

Boosting Revenue by Working Harder—or Smarter?

Urgent message: With careful consideration and disciplined planning, ancillary services can add to your bottom line without significantly adding to your workload. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Could Charles Dickens’ discourse provide a better depiction of the urgent care business today? Unprecedented growth in recent years proves the value of a healthcare delivery model like urgent care, based on consumer needs for affordability and convenience. But urgent care is not immune from challenges …

Urgent Care Occupational Medicine Defined

A joint International Labor Organization/World Health Organization committee defines occupational health as the “promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental, and social well-being of workers in all occupations.” This article will refine that definition as it applies to urgent care occupational medicine (UCOM) and explore the rationale for incorporating products and services of value to employers within an urgent care clinic. Scope of Practice Clinics that offer occupational medicine services are uniquely …

No Appointment Needed: The Resurgence of Urgent Care Centers in the United States

Urgent message: A new report from the California Health Care Foundation, excerpted here, examines how the growth of urgent care is influencing delivery of healthcare—and what the prospects for the future of the industry might be. Prepared for the California HealthCare Foundation by Robin M. Weinick, PhD and Renée M. Betancourt, BA The days of having a family doctor in town who cared for all of a patient’s health needs are long gone. In their …

Management of Distal Radial Fractures

Urgent message: Distal radial fractures in children can often be treated by non-orthopedists without the need for full casting in an urgent care center that can perform simple splinting, thus sparing hospital referral. Deena R. Zimmerman, MD, MPH, IBCLC, Scott Fields, MD, and Nahum Kovalski, BSc, MDCM Introduction Wrist fracture is a com-mon injury in children. Many of these fractures are buckle or torus fractures. Traditionally, treatment for buckle fractures has been short-arm casting for …

Management of Distal Radial Fractures in Young Patients by Non-Orthopedists in an Urgent Care Center

Wrist fracture is a common injury in children. 1 Many of these fractures are buckle or torus fractures. Traditionally, treatment for buckle fractures has been short-arm casting for two to four weeks.2 However, questions have been raised as to the need for such treatment. A num- ber of recent studies have indicated that many such fractures may be managed without casting by the use of either elastic bandaging alone3 or splints.4-6 Plaster splints can easily …

Are DNA Relationship Testing Services a Good Match for Urgent Care?

Urgent message: The last 10 years have seen a dramatic increase in DNA parentage testing. Yet, the DNA testing industry remains, in essence, unregulated. Can urgent care providers fulfill a need for ethical and clinically reliable access, while receiving direct and immediate payment for your services? Elizabeth Panke, MD, PhD For many generations, defining the parent-child relationship was easy. The woman who gave birth to the child was the child’s legal mother; to a large …