Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Practice Management

 

Competing for Patients in a Digitally Connected World

By bnapolitano  /  October 1, 2019
Urgent message: In today’s tech-driven, digital-everything society, industry-leading consumer companies all leverage technology to reducing friction—ie, steps, obstacles, and unnecessary…
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Competing for Patients in a Digitally Connected World

Advertised ED Wait Times Negatively Skew Patient Perceptions Regarding Nonemergent Encounters

By bnapolitano  /  October 7, 2019
Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The…
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Advertised ED Wait Times Negatively Skew Patient Perceptions Regarding Nonemergent Encounters

An Unusual Etiology of Chronic Subdural Hematoma: Case Report and Review of the Literature

By bnapolitano  /  October 1, 2019
Urgent message: Absence of an obvious cause of symptoms should not mislead the clinician away from the likely diagnosis based…
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An Unusual Etiology of Chronic Subdural Hematoma: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Evaluation of Infectious Conjunctivitis by Clinical Evaluation and Novel Diagnostics

By bnapolitano  /  October 1, 2019
Urgent message: Urgent care is often the first stop for patients experiencing acute eye complaints, including conjunctivitis. The capability to…
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Evaluation of Infectious Conjunctivitis by Clinical Evaluation and Novel Diagnostics

A 12-Year-Old Boy with Groin Pain

By bnapolitano  /  October 14, 2019
A 12-year-old boy is brought to your urgent care center by his mother. She reports that while playing dodgeball after…
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A 12-Year-Old Boy with Groin Pain

Urgent Care News

UCA Webinar: If Your Medical Equipment Isn’t in Tip-Top Order, Neither Is Your Facility

All the clinical expertise in the world won’t help you treat patients efficiently and properly …
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CDC: Patients with Lung Damage from E-Cigs Can Deteriorate Quickly; Treat Accordingly

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new, interim guidelines on assessing and …
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Know Your Responsibilities to Patients Under the ADA—or Face Bad Press and Fines

As business operators, we probably think of our obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act …
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Despite Publicity and More Attention from Providers, STDs Keep Climbing

Regular readers of JUCM News (or any local or national mainstream news source) know that …
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An Unofficial Case Study: ED Visits (and Costs) Fall When a New Urgent Care Center Opens Up

They weren’t designed as such, but recent events in Dayton, OH are proving to be …
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Web Exclusive Articles

Advertised ED Wait Times Negatively Skew Patient Perceptions Regarding Nonemergent Encounters

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is …
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Whether You Fail or Prevail Rests on Your Preparedness for Flu Season—Now

Urgent message: As this year’s flu season arrives, urgent care providers must take stock of …
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Upgrading Your Urgent Care’s Curb Appeal and Interior

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is …
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How Urgent Care Managers Can Support Their Employees Through the Grieving Process

Urgent message: Everyone will experience some kind of loss in their lifetime; all too often, …
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Patients vs Consumers—What’s the Correct Term in Urgent Care?

Urgent message: As the debate rages as to whether today’s healthcare recipient should be regarded …
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Clinical Articles

Urgent message: Urgent care is often the first stop for patients experiencing acute eye complaints, including conjunctivitis. The capability to accurately distinguish between infectious conjunctivitis of a viral nature vs that of a bacterial nature is essential to administering appropriate treatment and avoiding inappropriate use of antibiotics.

Evaluation of Infectious Conjunctivitis by Clinical Evaluation and Novel Diagnostics

Urgent message: Urgent care is often the first stop for patients experiencing acute eye complaints, including conjunctivitis. The capability to …
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An Updated Approach to Toddler Fractures

Urgent message: Toddler’s fractures are a common cause of limp and failure to bear weight in children under 4 years …
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Repetitive Motion Injuries: Urgent Diagnosis, Patient-Centered Management

Urgent message: Musculoskeletal disorders result in costly, disabling outcomes for Americans—causing significant economic impact (work-related injuries, early retirement, days away …
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Top 5 Wilderness Medicine Topics for the Urgent Care Provider

Urgent message: “Wilderness” medicine is less exotic than one would think. Patients with complaints that began during or after an …
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Practice Management Articles

Urgent message: In today’s tech-driven, digital-everything society, industry-leading consumer companies all leverage technology to reducing friction—ie, steps, obstacles, and unnecessary effort—in making their products and services fast, convenient, and accessible. The urgent care operation that can align with this growing trend and leverage technology to root out friction will win loyalty and patronage from today’s digitally native healthcare consumer.

Competing for Patients in a Digitally Connected World

Urgent message: In today’s tech-driven, digital-everything society, industry-leading consumer companies all leverage technology to reducing friction—ie, steps, obstacles, and unnecessary …
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The Millennial Conundrum: Fostering an Engaged Multigenerational Urgent Care Workforce

Urgent message: Are Millennial employees breathing fresh energy into the urgent care workplace or are they a new breed of …
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Creating the ‘Ideal’ Urgent Care Experience

Urgent message: For owner-operators truly committed to creating “the ideal urgent care experience”—a thriving operating model that benefits patients, employees, …
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Are Those Teambuilding Activities Really Worth It?

Urgent message: High-profile teambuilding extravaganzas may get your crew pumped up—once or twice a year, and assuming you can shut …
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Insights in Images Challenges

An 80-Year-Old Man with Rhinorrhea, Cough, and Intermittent Dizziness

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A 59-Year-Old Man with a Painful Elbow After a Fall

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A 48-Year-Old Woman with a Facial Lesion

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An 88-Year-Old Woman with Several Weeks of Dizziness

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A 2-Year-Old Girl with Leg Pain After Jumping on a Trampoline

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A 47-Year-Old Female Cancer Patient with Red, Flaccid Bullae on Her Leg

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JUCM CAREER CENTER

Download Past Issues

October 2019 : Pink Eye: Is It Viral or Bacterial? 

VIEW ISSUES ARCHIVE

CASE REPORTS

An Unusual Etiology of Chronic Subdural Hematoma: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Urgent message: Absence of an obvious cause of symptoms should not mislead the clinician away from …
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A 30-Year-Old Female with Headaches of Increasing Frequency

Urgent message: Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) occurs when a blood clot forms in the venous …
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Abdominal Pain in the Younger Adult: Let’s Not Forget Acute Diverticulitis

Urgent message: The differential diagnosis of abdominal pain is challenging because many symptoms and signs are …
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A 9-Year-Old Girl with Sudden-Onset Sore Throat After a Meal

Urgent message: Sore throat and throat pain are common complaints in the urgent care setting. While …
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An 11-Year-Old Girl with Back Pain and Chronic Poor Appetite

Urgent message: Patients with recurrent symptoms should have an expanded history—including a genitourinary history in premenarchal …
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HEALTH LAW

Employer Liability for Flu Infection

Urgent message: While urgent care centers benefit from exaggerated seasonal demand when a flu epidemic strikes, …
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#MeToo in the Urgent Care Center: When the Perpetrator is a Patient

Urgent message: Most urgent care operators are well aware of the need for strong, clear policies …
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The Consequences of a Medical Provider Quitting Without Notice

Urgent message: Patients and communities rely on access to urgent care to augment primary care shortages …
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How Best to Manage an ‘At-Will’ Termination

Urgent message: In most states, employment is at will—meaning that an employer can fire or terminate …
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Do Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants Qualify for Overtime in the Urgent Care Setting?

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice …
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CLINICAL CHALLENGES

A 46-Year-Old Obese Man with a Painful Skin Lesion

The patients is an obese 46-year-old man who complains of a painful skin lesion located between folds of skin that …
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A 6-Year-Old Boy with Leg Pain After a Hard Impact

The patient is a 6-year-old boy who was brought to your urgent care center by his parents with pain in …
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Multiple Findings Including STEMI, Low Voltage, and Type 2 AV Block in a 72-Year-Old Woman

The patient is a 72-year-old woman who presents with 2 hours of chest pain with associated diaphoresis. She has a …
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An 88-Year-Old Woman with Several Weeks of Dizziness

The patients is an 88-year-old woman with 3 weeks of dizziness but no complaints of chest pain/discomfort, shortness of breath, …
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A 59-Year-Old Man with a Painful Elbow After a Fall

The patient is a 59-year-old man who presents with pain in his elbow. He says he was experimenting with his …
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OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE

Flu Season Carries Potential Benefits—and Risks—for Occupational Medicine Providers

If you offer occupational medicine services, it’s likely a heavily promoted flu clinic is an annual event. (And if not, …
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Keep Valued Occ Med Clients by Helping Them Measure the Value of Your Services

You’ve done the hard part—selling your occupational medicine services and delivering on your promise of providing excellent care—but now you …
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Want to Drum Up More Occ Med Business? You Need to Educate Prospective Clients!

For urgent care operators who offer occupational medicine services, the value of those services is self-evident. Likewise, businesses that already …
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Urgent Care is Forging Inroads in Occ Med—but There’s Still Plenty of Room for Growth

Occupational medicine can be found in more than half of U.S. workplaces, according to newly published data from the Centers …
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Current Drug Test Data Reflect New Trends in Opioid and Marijuana Use Among Workers

As marijuana use becomes legal in more communities across the country and urgent care providers (among others) get the message …
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Revenue Cycle Management

Be Ready for the ICD-10-CM 2020 Updates

October 1, 2019 introduces 273 new diagnosis codes, 21 deactivated codes, and 35 code description revisions to the International Classification …
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Utilizing Credit Card Pre-authorization to Optimize Revenue

With the continued rise of the cost of healthcare and higher out-of-pocket costs to the patient, urgent care centers are …
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Optimize Revenue with Improved Claims Denials Management

No matter how diligent your billing staff is about billing charges out correctly, it is inevitable that you will receive …
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Get Ready for the Next Round of Changes to E/M Guidelines

The American Medical Association has announced it is taking the first steps towards revising the new Evaluation and Management (E/M) …
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Be Aware: The CCI Edits, They Are a Changin’

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announce an update to claim adjudication rules for National Correct Coding Initiative Procedure-to-Procedure …
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DEVELOPING DATA

Conjunctivitis: When the Eyes Have It, How Many Patients Turn to Urgent Care?

“Care must be taken to differentiate bacterial infections from viral diseases and allergic conditions.”1 Things don’t get much plainer than …
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Physician Assignment Searches: Urgent Care is on the Rise, Hospitals on the Decline

This is an interesting time to be in the healthcare field. We keep hearing (and are starting to see the …
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Urgent Care Is an Appropriate Setting for Any Age—But What Ages Are Showing Up the Most?

This issue of JUCM, without any plan to do so, demonstrates the age range of patients who realize the value …
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Telemedicine in Urgent Care—Yay, Nay, or Too Soon to Say?

If you read this month’s Urgent Perspectives column (page 1), you were treated to a dynamic conversation between two urgent …
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New Data Show Urgent Care Outpacing Retail and ED Traffic

Urgent care started as something akin to the California Gold Rush; if a physician had the resources, the inclination, and …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care

Abstracts in Urgent Care-October 2019

Report Pulmonary Illness Possibly Involving Vaping to State, Local Health Departments Key point: The CDC is working with state health …
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Abstract In Urgent Care-September 2019

Practice of Urgent Care: Rude Patients May Do More than Ruin Your Mood Key point: Individual and team performance of …
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Abstract In Urgent Care-July 2019

Rush for Outpatient Stress Test Recommendation (Finally) Examined Key point: Rapid outpatient stress testing (ie, within 72 hours), which has …
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Abstract In Urgent Care-June 2019

Practice of Urgent Care: The Illusion of Multitasking and the Cost of Interruptions Key point: True multitasking is not possible …
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Abstract In Urgent Care-May 2019

Mitigating Risk Through Shared Decisionmaking Key point: Shared decision-making appears to mitigate the risk to clinicians of patient complaints and …
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The MIPS Mess

It should not be terribly surprising to anyone that the massive government effort to incentivize quality has run into some …
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Virtual Urgent Care: Boom or Bust?

Telemedicine remains a hot topic of debate in urgent care circles. In fact, it seems like every urgent care conference …
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I’m Not a Lawyer, But I Play One…

Like many of you, the fear of a medical malpractice claim casts a wide shadow over everything I do. Like …
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Longitudinal Assessment: A Dent in the ABMS Armor?

With the volume of dissent against Maintenance of Certification (MOC) now at a fever pitch, American Board of Medical Specialties …
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Urgent Care and Antibiotics: Advancing Care and Stewardship

Antimicrobial stewardship is defined as a coordinated program that promotes the appropriate use of antimicrobials (including antibiotics), improves patient outcomes, …
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