Urgent message: An urgent care entrepreneur is the “product” and must become skilled at promoting him/herself. When you “wear your brand,” you call attention to what you have to offer, generating awareness of an interest in your urgent care center. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, ExperityOn a recent visit to a popular bakery-café, I noticed a young woman on the sofa working on her laptop. For passersby, there was no question about which candidate would …
Read MoreHiring As If Your Patients’ Health and Satisfaction Depended Upon It
Urgent message: Hiring the right candidate for a job at an urgent care center is an art and a science, but a variety of tools exist to facilitate the process. WILLIAM MARTY MARTIN, PSYD, MPH, MA, MS This article is designed to equip urgent care clinic owners with the tools they need to hire better than they have in the past. After reading it, you will be able to: (1) organize your hiring process around …
Read MoreOctober 2012
September 2012
Five Federal Employment Regulations Urgent Care Operators Need to Know (Part 2)
Urgent message: The second article in a two-part series looks at USERRA, FMLA, and NLRA—three federal labor laws that urgent care operators are likely to encounter. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Case Record Urgent care centers are subject to a multitude of federal employment regulations and failure to comply with any of them could result in civil litigation or criminal penalties. Laws prohibiting discrimination, regulating wages and hours, permitting leave for military service …
Read MoreJuly/August 2012
June 2012
Workplace Gossip in Urgent Care: The Impact of Toxic Talk
Urgent message: Malicious gossip in an urgent care center can undermine trust, service, and teamwork. Knowing how to spot toxic talk is the first step to rooting it out before it takes hold. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity What’s the harm in a little workplace gossip? Well, consider what happens when a billing manager opines that an operations manager “slept” her way into a job. Or, when a new executive tells a staff member …
Read MorePublic Relations in Urgent Care: A Step-by-Step Plan for Success
Urgent Message: Getting local media attention can drive patients to an urgent care center’s doors. Applying best PR practices can produce results and conserve marketing dollars. MARCIA HORN NOYES Despite the meteoric rise in urgent care center openings over the past decade, media outlets indicate that story pitches received from urgent care providers pale in comparison to those submitted by hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. Yet urgent care medicine remains fertile ground for quick and compelling …
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