Practice Management
The Urgent Care Association has launched a public-facing campaign to get consumers to head to their local urgent care center to ward off influenza, now that the season has officially begun. In addition to stressing that the urgent care center is “the best place to receive flu vaccinations and other key winter healthcare services,” UCA’s message also focuses on herd immunity—the notion that higher immunization rates will result in lower incidence of illness across the …
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As we’ve reported here, the evolving habits of patients who seek immediate, cost-efficient, quality care is forcing hospitals and health systems to reconsider their own approaches to patient engagement. Such is reconfirmed in a Wall Street Journal article that observes “as patients increasingly seek cheaper and more convenient care, some of the largest U.S. hospital operators are investing in surgery centers, emergency rooms, and urgent care clinics.” The article cites Tenet Healthcare Corp., Dignity Health, …
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A physician assistant’s suspicions and subsequent law enforcement investigations have led to the president of an urgent care center in south Florida being formally charged with posing as a physician and possession of a blank prescription form. In fact, the Med-Clinic in Doral, FL was not licensed by the state to serve as any kind of medical facility. Regardless, it employed “real” clinicians and promoted its capabilities to treat broken bones and infections…all the services …
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A brouhaha in the St. Louis area should serve as a reminder (to operators, clinicians, and staff) that posts to social media platforms are subject to the same standards of fair comment as statements made in the media or anywhere in public. Saying something perceived as inflammatory or wrongfully derogatory about a local urgent care operator on Facebook, in this case, landed the chair of a local emergency department in court. The issue arose when …
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Five Star Urgent Care, which currently operates 17 urgent care locations, is opening 18 more in New York and Ohio after already converting an existing primary practice to an urgent care center. The company is ironing out leases for the rest, and expects to complete the growth spurt by late 2018. The company has found the areas in which the new centers will be located to be underserved by healthcare providers in general. The move …
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We told you in August about a hepatitis A outbreak that killed eight people in San Diego County, CA. The worse news is that hep A continues to spread throughout California—and could continue to do so for years to come, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions. At least 569 people have been infected, including 17 who have died, since last November in San Diego, Santa Cruz, and Los Angeles counties. They’re among …
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Walgreens, which has established a presence in the retail clinic market by outsourcing most such operations in its stores to third parties, is upping the ante on direct patient care with plans to open higher-acuity walk-in clinics in Las Vegas this year. More on the order of an urgent care center, including the capability to provide x-rays and offer stitches, the four locations will be operated by MedExpress and connected to existing Walgreens drugstores, but …
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As telehealth continues to take root as a viable way to administer care, especially for patients in rural areas, a few subsegments are seeing sharper growth than others. Codes for specialty telehealth (which includes inpatient and outpatient care, ED visits, and postacute care consults) for Medicare beneficiaries were applied 191,000 times in 2015, according to new data from Advisory Board. In addition, the volume of telebehavioral health services provided grew 16-fold between 2012 and 2013, …
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An urgent care center in Atascadero, CA has been robbed of hundreds of Norco (acetaminophen and hydrocodone) capsules, with a market value of more than $10,000—and the prime suspect is a former employee, according to police there. The drugs disappeared over a 2-year period, with the perpetrator altering patient records so it appeared the center needed greater quantities than were ultimately stocked. No arrests have been made, to date, but local police are working with …
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Urgent message: Despite most employees’ abhorrence to meetings, they indeed serve a valuable organizational purpose. The key is to keep them short, focused, free of distractions, and actionable. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. The next time you find yourself bored and distracted in yet another meeting, take solace in the fact that you’re not …
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