Practice Management
Urgent message: Many urgent care operators took full advantage of opportunities to serve their communities during the pandemic, accumulating cash in the process. While many question what comes next, there’s no better time to grow your own urgent care business. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Networks and is Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and within …
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Urgent message: While market conditions for mergers and acquisitions are currently “hot,” variability in urgent care volume attributable to COVID-19 has led to changes in how deals are evaluated and structured. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Networks and is Senior Editor of the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine Nationally, merger-and-acquisition activity has set a record pace across all industries since the start of the pandemic. Corporations, private equity funds, and buyout …
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Urgent message: Whereas sexual harassment is defined as unwanted and one-sided, many times employees choose to become romantically involved, requiring that urgent care centers have a policy and a plan to address workplace fraternization. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Networks and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. In 2019, McDonald’s fired its Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook for engaging in a relationship that violated company policy. The …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine and is President of Experity Networks. Urgent message: As COVID-19 has enabled many non-patient-facing employees to work from home, now urgent care operators must grapple with returning some of those employees to the office or otherwise managing a “hybrid” workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed every facet of daily life. Although its impact on the world of medicine is …
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Urgent message: Urgent care centers equipped to draw blood and collect other specimens are well positioned to create new revenue streams related to the booming direct-to-consumer lab movement. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Strategic Initiatives at Experity. People are taking more responsibility for their health than ever before. Whether that means practicing wellness promotion activities or actively seeking care without referrals, today’s healthcare landscape looks much different than it did 20 years …
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Urgent message: Urgent care operators are spending an increasing amount of their marketing budget on seven digital tactics. Fortunately for those working in healthcare, there will never be a shortage of patients. People will always come down with illnesses, and minor injuries won’t go away anytime soon. That being said, it can still be difficult to get people in the door of your specific urgent care center. Although it often gets neglected, proper marketing is …
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Urgent message: As consumers become more dependent on their internet-connected smartphones for health information, urgent care centers must adapt their marketing content to mobile devices and include greater use of voice-enabled search and GPS-enabled marketing tactics. When personalized technology started to become widespread in the late 90s and early 2000s, it changed the way companies did business. They were forced to adapt to new marketing tactics and develop creative ways to fend off competitors. Customers …
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Urgent message: There are serious and costly consequences for misclassifying employees as independent contractors, even if the employee requests or agrees to do so. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care. With COVID-19 fears or childcare issues requiring more people to consider home-based employment—and with many companies already conditioned to having employees working remotely—circumstances may arise in which executive or administrative personnel seek job flexibility beyond what’s currently offered …
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Urgent message: Similar to workplace bullying, sexual harassment, and toxic gossip, gaslighting behaviors result in demoralized workplace cultures, lost business opportunities, and legal liability for urgent care leaders and organizations. Past issues of JUCM have covered the various “axes of workplace evils” including workplace bullying,1 sexual harassment,2 and toxic gossip.3 Not to be mistaken for crude schoolyard behavior, at the heart of these very serious workplace dysfunctions is one person trying to gain an advantage …
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Urgent message: It’s important for urgent care to watch and learn from Walmart, which has engaged leading retail and strategic consultants to develop “Walmart Health.” However, based on Walmart’s three previous failures to penetrate any significant share of even its own stores with a retail clinic model, skepticism over Walmart’s ability to execute as a healthcare provider is warranted. If Walmart has its way, America’s burgeoning healthcare marketplace is about to get a lot more …
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