Practice Management
Urgent message: Urgent care operators must be mindful of costs and labor efficiency to navigate the challenges of rising and falling revenue in what’s been a highly seasonal business. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, is President of Experity Consulting and is Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. For much of 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic drove both uncertainty and higher volumes (and thus profits) to urgent care centers. With the 2022-2023 …
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Urgent message: Urgent care operators of all sizes are poised for continued growth in 2023. In this post-COVID environment, look to shifting de novo ownership trends, a slowing of health system activity, and independent entrepreneurs regaining their courage as the driving factors. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc The COVID-19 pandemic is no longer the primary driver of decision-making for urgent care operators. While its impact over the past few years cannot be understated, other factors …
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Urgent message: While the term “triage” refers to one distinct step in emergency department throughput, in urgent care the concept encompasses a series of activities that span queuing, registering, intake, and the physical exam. Given the clinical and legal implications of the term, including who legally can triage, the term should be avoided in most urgent care settings. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc According to modern dictionaries, triage refers to the “assignment of degrees of …
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Urgent Message: Five trends will drive urgent care strategy in 2023, including its continued response to COVID-19, building bridges with the pediatric community, integration of urgent and primary care, integration of specialist services, and increased operational efficiency in response to staffing challenges. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Consulting and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. As we embark upon 2023, year of the “rabbit” in the …
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Urgent message: X-ray is an essential component of urgent care operations. Amid rising costs and staffing shortages, limited-scope x-ray techs may be a viable alternative to licensed radiology techs to perform imaging in the clinic. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc One of the unexpected changes we’ve seen come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is the difficulty urgent care centers face in hiring licensed radiologic technologists (RTs). Even hospitals struggle to hire, offering sign-on bonuses of …
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Urgent message: Founded by emergency medicine doctors on a mission to keep nonemergent patients out of the ED, urgent care has been forced by changes in reimbursement policies to emphasize high productivity and labor cost savings—ultimately leading to overall fewer procedures and thus a lower acuity level for urgent care centers. Benjamin Barlow, MD; Monte Sandler; Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc The urgent care community has faced many challenges over the past several years. The largest …
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Urgent message: Demand for DOT-related services for truck drivers is soaring. Urgent care centers can augment traditional insurance-paid visits with B2B relationships while serving a historically unhealthy population. Alan A. Ayers is President of Experity Consulting and Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. The commercial trucking industry in the United States is massive (Table 1). The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requires that all commercial motor vehicle drivers receive a physical every …
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Urgent message: Using a data-driven approach to predict performance, taking advantage of openings in traditional retail spaces, or utilizing resources like BTS to develop a standalone center greatly improves a growing urgent care chain’s potential profitability and long-term brand success. Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Networks and is Senior Editor, Practice Management of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. A “stagnant business” is a “dead business” (or, in the words of former Notre …
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Urgent message: De novo growth of urgent care continued through the pandemic. As COVID turns endemic, investors remain bullish on urgent care growth. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Despite concerns about fluctuating visit volumes and long-term sustainability, uncertainty and urgent care have always gone hand in hand. Case in point: Largely driven by flu, the urgent care industry has firsthand insight into years of flu research, seasonal trends, and vaccine efficacy. Yet amid everything we …
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Urgent message: Despite the current seasonal, postpandemic lull in volume, sophisticated investors are focused on the long-term growth prospects of urgent care in terms of new rooftops, new patient populations, new services, and new payers…among others. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Even for those who are “tenured” in the urgent care industry—the last 24 months of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a rough ride. If 100% were baseline volume, the average urgent care saw volume …
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