Practice Management
Urgent message: Assessing the true cost per patient is key to determining which pricing model will generate the most revenue for an urgent care center. JORDAN TODD RICE, MD A cost-per-patient analysis may not work for every urgent care center owner, but this article is intended to give JUCM readers the basic tools they need to understand the formulas. It can also serve as a baseline for discussions with urgent care center staff, executives, managers, …
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Urgent message: Adding travel health services to an urgent care center can increase a practice’s income and enhance its client base. LYNNE BUNNELL, RN Providing pre-travel health services in an urgent care clinic makes good business sense. The setting is natural to patients who want to be seen for care just days before leaving on a trip. It also works well for those who are more flexible in scheduling visits because their trips are planned …
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Urgent message: Telemedicine represents a new growth opportunity for urgent care centers that want to attract consumers looking for on-demand medicine. IAN VASQUEZ, MBA Urgent care providers are well positioned to take advantage of new market opportunities being driven by consumers and employers who increasingly look to the Internet for on-demand medicine. Telemedicine represents one such opportunity. This article will help you understand applications of telemedicine to urgent care and assess key risks and benefits …
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Urgent message: After location, how to pay for an urgent care site is crucial to your success. Here’s how to think it through. MICHAEL ZELNIK, CCIM Once you’ve found the right location for your next urgent care (see An Urgent Care Site That Maximizes Revenue, JUCM, September 2011), your focus can turn to analyzing the risks and benefits of leasing or purchasing property in the trade area you’ve identified. This analysis should be more than …
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Urgent message: Using interpreters in the urgent care setting can help you provide quality healthcare and save time and money. Bruce Merley Imagine that it is late Friday night and you and a nurse are the last remaining staff on duty at your urgent care center. A couple arrives and the woman appears to have several facial cuts and bruises. When you greet them, the man responds in a language you do not understand. You …
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Urgent message: More and more urgent care clinics are wrestling with whether to offer digital or conventional x-rays. In this article, Registered Technologist Trip Hale offers expert advice on how to make the decision. Trip Hale, RT, (R) Introduction For today’s urgent care clinics, imaging is an internal part of providing complete diagnostic and treatment services. Because reimbursement for diagnostic studies is lower for physician-owned than for hospital or outpatient imaging facilities, a well-planned and …
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Urgent message: Registration specialists, medical assistants, and techs may be your lowest-paid employees, but the success of your urgent care is in their hands—and their success is in yours. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Urgent care is a service business whose long-term viability depends on patient loyalty and word of mouth. That’s why urgent care entrepreneurs spend tens of thousands of dollars in selecting the right locations, equipping them with the latest technology, and …
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Urgent message: An onsite lab can generate significant revenue for your practice. Lab expert Tim Dumas shows how. TIM DUMAS, MLT,CLS Introduction I have been a lab tech for almost 35 years and serve as advisor to 45 physician office labs around the country. I have seen many changes in that time, most for the better. Thirty—even 20—years ago, a stat CBC with differential was a 15-minute-procedure and required a skilled lab tech to get …
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