Practice Management
Ascension Healthcare, with 140 hospitals and more than 50 urgent cares in 19 states, was impacted by a cyberattack earlier this month, forcing ambulances to divert and pharmacies to shut down. The system disconnected from its Epic EHR, which caused long emergency department wait times and care delays. Ascension has not given a timeline for when its systems will be fully restored, according to Healthcare Dive on its cyberattack state-by-state tracker. How much: When Change …
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Amazon’s apparent plans to get into the pharmaceutical distribution business—the online retailer has already gotten permits that would pave the way in several states—may have pushed CVS to announce plans to start delivering medications the same day they’re prescribed in certain cities, and next-day everywhere early in 2018. The irony is that CVS has sunk untold resources into its retail clinic business, based on drawing more customers into their brick-and-mortar locations. This begs the question …
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The episodic nature of the urgent care setting makes it a popular target for opioid addicts “doctor shopping” for someone new to write prescriptions. As such, urgent care clinicians must remain always-vigilant for ways to help stem rampant opioid addiction. One tool that’s built into the urgent care electronic medical record systems (eprescribing) can be a valuable weapon in that fight. Where a paper script—or, worse, a whole pad—can be lost or stolen, an electronic …
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The knock on retail clinics like those found in retail chains and big-box stores is that they offer a limited menu of services, administered most often by nonphysicians. One pharmacy is bucking that trend by bringing a physician into the fold to create a hybrid community drugstore/ urgent care center that provides a higher level of care in a proper exam room. Sona Pharmacy + Clinic in Asheville, NC bills itself as “a different kind …
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Proponents say “step therapy” will save the healthcare system big money while still allowing patients the medications they need. Opponents call it “fail first” and insist that the practice of having patients try cheaper versions of prescribed medications—with insurers paying for the more expensive variety only if the cheaper drug doesn’t do the job—is a bitter pill to swallow. Some clinicians claim the practice, which in effect has insurers overriding a prescriber’s choice of medications …
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