Practice Management
Essential Health says it went to great lengths to make sure employees had time to get their flu shots or apply for an opt-out on medical, religious, or philosophical grounds. It also tried to make it as easy as possible by offering multiple, free vaccine clinics, sending vaccine carts around so workers wouldn’t even have to leave their post. It provided ample incentive, too, notifying workers that if they did not get vaccinated (or an …
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As many healthcare systems continue to break ground on their own urgent care facilities and others scan the horizon for operations ripe for acquisition, a third option is starting to pick up steam: Some hospitals are contracting with third parties to run their urgent care business in the hope of ensuring their in-house “startups” are operated by industry veterans. Physicians Immediate Care and OSF Healthcare have already entered into such an arrangement, as have Premier …
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As we’ve reported here, the evolving habits of patients who seek immediate, cost-efficient, quality care is forcing hospitals and health systems to reconsider their own approaches to patient engagement. Such is reconfirmed in a Wall Street Journal article that observes “as patients increasingly seek cheaper and more convenient care, some of the largest U.S. hospital operators are investing in surgery centers, emergency rooms, and urgent care clinics.” The article cites Tenet Healthcare Corp., Dignity Health, …
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Hospitals in parts of Florida that were hit hard by Hurricane Irma are open for business and fully staffed, but they’ve got so many patients coming in with hurricane-related injuries and illness that the EDs are overflowing. Some of them have put out the word that urgent care would be a better place to go right now for nonemergent complaints, pointing out that they will be treated more quickly while also easing the burden at …
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Urgent care operators who have been waiting for the elusive “right time” to start offering telemedicine might want to keep an eye out for hospital closures in their area—especially if those hospitals have been providing care where there aren’t many other options. A new study by the Texas A & M Rural and Community Health highlights telemedicine as a viable, and valuable, alternative for care when hospitals shutter their doors. The researchers even went so …
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The ever-increasing investment hospitals are making in their own urgent care offerings, along with the growing senior population and evolving habits of younger patients, are key factors in the ongoing growth of the urgent care industry, according to a new report by TMR Research. Urgent Care Centers Market—Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth, and Forecast 2017–2025 also credits the pioneering operators who brought the industry to this point, however, noting that the services …
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There may be a certain amount of prestige to be aligned with major teaching hospitals in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but physicians on the outskirts of medium-size cities are fetching higher pay these days, according to data just released by Doximity, a social network for clinicians. Researchers found salaries to be highest in rural, low-cost areas within medium-sized metropolitan areas. Doctors and advanced practice providers in the Charlotte, NC metro area are …
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Hospital operators like Mission Health System in North Carolina and Rush University Medical Center are trying a new approach to draw in patients off the street: offering urgent care at primary care prices. It seems to be working, too, as visits to other urgent care centers are down in the Asheville, NC area since Mission made their move. Mission My Care Now has opened four primary care locations that are open to walk-in patients beyond …
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Introduction It should not be surprising that when hospital executives and personnel sit down to discuss issues and problems around population health, accountable care organization (ACO) integration, network development, cost containment, new product lines, hospital readmission rates, care coordination, and related topics they often arrive at hospital-centric and hospital-based solutions to solve them.1 As hospitals and hospital networks look to urgent care centers to address some of these issues through hospital/urgent care affiliations, joint ventures, …
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Urgent care and hospital operator Sutter Health is diversifying its efforts to reach patients in multiple settings by opening its own retail-style walk-in clinics in the Sacramento, CA area. Sutter already operated a few retail clinics housed in Rite Aid stores, along with dozens of urgent care centers. Now they’ve opened three such locations of their own in neighborhood shopping centers, with plans to open nine more in the San Francisco Bay area this summer. …
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