Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Government Report: U.S. Needs Better Occupational Health and Safety Surveillance

The timing couldn’t be better for urgent care operators who offer occupational medicine services, as a new government report challenges various stakeholders to establish more robust health surveillance practices in the workplace. A Smarter National Surveillance System for Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Center, published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, calls for greater coordination among federal agencies and the states, as well as the creation of regional occupational safety …

Spike in Drug Abuse and Overdose Deaths Makes Workplace Drug Testing an Urgent Matter

With approximately 70% of the 14.8 million Americans who abuse drugs being employed, and the rate of deaths from overdose continuing to climb annually, workplace drug testing has become a key service for urgent care operators that offer occupational medicine services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims there’s been a 200% increase in the rate of overdose deaths attributed to opioid pain medications and heroin, and that nearly 2 million people in the …

Expect Changes to Drug Panels in Response to Opioid Crisis

The unabated epidemic of opioid and synthetic opioid addiction has moved President Trump to declare it a national public health emergency. It’s also moving occupational health providers, including some urgent care operators, to look at updating the drug screens they give as part of their pre-employment examinations. Tennessee Occupational Health, for one, reports that as much as 80% of positive drug tests they see show evidence of opiates. As recently as 5 years, ago, marijuana …

New York Occ Med Providers May See More DOT Physicals

The market for conducting Department of Transportation physicals just got a bit more urgent care-friendly in New York. As of June 1, chiropractors are no longer allowed to give DOT physicals for commercial motor vehicle drivers—giving urgent care operators that offer such services a leg up on expanding their occupational medicine business. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration contends that DOT physicals are outside a chiropractor’s scope of practice. Chiropractors are already lobbying to have …

Urgent Care Surges in Southeast Michigan

Southeast Michigan is seeing a surge of urgent care growth this spring—and industry watchers are saying operators can thank President Obama, in a roundabout way. Regional growth started to pick up speed after the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) was passed in 2010, fueled by an influx of newly insured patients who need care immediately, but who may have been steered into urgent care by employers hoping to stem rising emergency room bills. With …

Using Education as an Occupational Health Marketing Tool

As marketing initiatives become increasingly self-serving, it behooves an urgent care clinic to differentiate itself by “playing the education card.” Why Education? Many employer decision-makers are still strikingly naïve about the value of a well-integrated, proactive approach to their company’s health and safety activities. Educational information does not come off as self-serving and is perceived as a “kinder and gentler” form of marketing. In our information-saturated world, it is imperative to find a way to …

Anatomy of an Occupational Health Sales Call

FRANK H. LEONE, MBA, MPH “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, tell ’em, and tell ’em what you told ’em.” —Mark Twain Urgent care clinic operators would be well advised to keep in mind Mark Twain’s advice on how to approach a speech or a paper; the same sequence applies to an occupational medicine sales call. In Phase I, it is best to articulate a clear objective for your sales call and provide …

Urgent Care Services Rendered

UCA’S SURVEY COMMITTEE drew two important conclusions from its first industry-wide survey: urgent care is a growing industry nationwide, and those within the industry are hungry for benchmarking data. In each issue of JUCM, Developing Data will seek to fulfill that need. In this issue, a look at the breadth of services offered by respondents to the survey: