The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission tells us we can expect a spike in emergency room visits on or around the Independence Day holiday next week. If you’ve done a good job of alerting your community to the fact that many ED-bound patients could be treated just as well (not to mention faster and less expensively) in your urgent care center, that means you can expect to see more traffic, too. Make sure your holiday …
Read MoreLet Patients Know When You’re Available Over the Holidays
Last month we told you the day after Thanksgiving is the second busiest day of the year for urgent care centers—with December 26 being the busiest. Some of that volume is due to patients who assumed they either had to head to the emergency room or wait a day or more to get care. If your urgent care center is going to be open Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day, the time to let your …
Read MoreMaking a Business Case for Urgent Care Holiday Hours
 URGENT MESSAGE: Whether an urgent care center should be open 365 days per year or close on major or minor holidays depends upon factors that influence profitability, such as patient demand, competitive positioning, staff availability, payer reimbursement, and the branding impact of after-hours accessibility. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, serves on the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association, and is Vice President …
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