Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Implications of Patients Recording Urgent Care Provider Encounters

Urgent message: The ubiquity of smartphones increases the risk that patients will openly or covertly record interactions with their physicians. Urgent care operators should understand the legal and privacy implications and protect themselves with appropriate policies and training. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Smartphones with cameras and audio and video recorders that can be easily concealed in a pocket, purse, or backpack are now used by roughly 71% of Americans, including 86% of …

July/August 2015

June 2015

The Role of Urgent Care in an Integrated Care System: Insights from Intermountain Healthcare

Urgent message: This exclusive interview with Intermountain Medical Group Chief Executive Officer Linda Leckman, MD, illustrates how urgent care can improve access and clinical outcomes while reducing costs for patients in a system that integrates providers, hospitals, and health insurance using a shared electronic medical record and capitated payment. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Introduction In the evolving U.S. health-care system, individual providers, ancillary facilities, hospitals, and payors are joining together in connected systems …

May 2015

Six Elements of a Winning Patient Experience

Urgent message: Successful urgent care centers depend on repeat visits from loyal patients, but if patients do not like the experience provided, do not value it, or do not think it meets their needs, they will not come back. Cultivating a loyal following entails understanding and building a service offering around the factors that attract patients and keep them coming back. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Urgent care is differentiated from other medical practices …

Recognizing Employee Disengagement and Taking Steps to Re-engage

Urgent message: Employee disengagement is pandemic in the American workplace. At urgent care centers, operators have to work especially hard to keep frontline staff members motivated. Re-engaging employees starts with a strong management culture committed to establishing affinity with employees and ensuring that systems and processes support day-to-day operations. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity For many urgent care operators—clinically adept physician–owners who are likely green as entrepreneurs—it can be sobering to realize just how …

April 2015

Image Check: Impact of Employee Appearance on the Patient Experience

Urgent message: Patients often infer quality on the basis of outward appearances. Adopting a policy that addresses clothing, grooming, and body art can help balance the need to project a professional image in the urgent care center and to ensure workplace safety with employees’ desire to express themselves. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Remember the popular 1990s advertising slogan “Image is everything”? What was back then a trendy catchphrase created to peddle expensive …

Practice Management