Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Practice Management

 

Staying Power: How to Retain Your Best People

By bnapolitano  /  August 6, 2018
Urgent message: In increasingly competitive labor markets, ongoing success requires keeping your best people happy. A “stay interview” is one
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Staying Power: How to Retain Your Best People

Leg Pain in a 34-Year-Old Man

By bnapolitano  /  July 1, 2018
Urgent message: The ability to differentiate deep vein thrombosis from other diagnoses such as cellulitis is important in choosing the
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Leg Pain in a 34-Year-Old Man

Approach to Fever and Drooling in Infants and Toddlers

By bnapolitano  /  July 1, 2018
Urgent message: Typical drooling is no cause for alarm in infants and toddlers. However, excessive drooling accompanied by fever or
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Approach to Fever and Drooling in Infants and Toddlers

Establishing Success Habits for Leaders and Organizations

By bnapolitano  /  July 1, 2018
Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The
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Establishing Success Habits for Leaders and Organizations

A 58-Year-Old Female with a New Infusion Port and Shoulder Pain

By bnapolitano  /  August 14, 2018
  The patient is a 58-year-old female with a recently inserted infusion port, presenting with new-onset left shoulder pain. View the images
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A 58-Year-Old Female with a New Infusion Port and Shoulder Pain

Urgent Care News

Wet Late Summer Weather Prompts West Nile Surge—and You Can Help

Mosquitoes just love wet weather. Unfortunately, that includes pests carrying the West Nile virus—leading to …
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Cost Prompts More Than 20% of Americans to Pass on Medical Care

A new survey by Bankrate reveals that 22% of people in the United States have …
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AAP Prefers Shots Over Spray for Immunizing Kids Next Flu Season

The American Academy of Pediatrics has already decided that immunizing children with nasal spray just …
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What Can Hospitals Learn from Urgent Care? A Lot, Report Says

Urgent care centers have been eating away at patient volumes previously owned by hospital systems, …
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Amazon Pilots In-House Clinics for Seattle Employees

We first told you in February that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase were banding together …
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Web Exclusive Articles

Staying Power: How to Retain Your Best People

Urgent message: In increasingly competitive labor markets, ongoing success requires keeping your best people happy …
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Improving Patient Flow in Urgent Care Through Online Appointment Scheduling

Urgent message: Convenient, quality, same-day care is one of the hallmarks of the urgent care …
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How To Add a Personal Touch to Your Urgent Care Practice

  Urgent message: Traditional marketing and advertising only goes so far in building an urgent …
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The Power of the First Call: Building Command Telephone Presence

Urgent message: After an urgent care center spends thousands of dollars on marketing and advertising …
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Preventing Medication Errors in the Urgent Care Center

Urgent message: Medications can heal, but they can also be deadly. That’s why protocols and …
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Clinical Articles

Approach to Fever and Drooling in Infants and Toddlers

Urgent message: Typical drooling is no cause for alarm in infants and toddlers. However, excessive drooling accompanied by fever or …
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Head Injuries and Cirrhosis: Does everyone need a CT Scan?

Head Injuries and Cirrhosis: Does everyone need a CT Scan?

Urgent message: The decision of whether or not to image a patient with a head injury has significant implications—for the …
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Concussion Management in Urgent Care: A Primer for Implementation

Urgent message: Sports-related concussions are particularly dangerous injuries due to their complex nature and difficulties associated with diagnostic and return-to-play …
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Management of Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Low Back Pain in the Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: A systematic approach to evaluating, diagnosing, and treating low back pain in the urgent care setting reduces unnecessary …
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Practice Management Articles

Establishing Success Habits for Leaders and Organizations

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The …
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developing-reimbursement

Developing a Reimbursement Policy for CME and Other Employee Expenses

Urgent message: Every urgent care center should have a clear policy outlining which employee expenses, including CME-related expenses, it reimburses …
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Thinking Differently About Paid Time Off

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of …
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Facility Design: Cultivating Collaboration in the Back Office

Facility Design: Cultivating Collaboration in the Back Office

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The …
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Insights in Images Challenges

A 41-Year-Old Woman with Wrist Pain After Falling

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Pain and Changes in Appearance in a Child’s Eye

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Constipation in a 67-Year-Old Man

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Red Painful Eye with Visual Loss

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Man with Decreased Vision in One Eye

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55-year-old woman with injury to her right finger

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JUCM CAREER CENTER

Urgent Care Physician Opportunities – Bon Secours Medical Group – Greenville, SC May 15, 2018

URGENT CARE PHYSICIANS – HealthPartners – Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN May 13, 2018

Medical Director – OhioHealth Urgent Care – OH May 10, 2018

Family Medicine and/or Emergency Medicine Physicians – Main Line Health – Broomall, PA May 9, 2018

Urgent Care Physician – Sansum Clinic – Lompoc, CA May 8, 2018

Download Past Issues

July 2018 Fever and Drooling: Typical or a Red Flag for Something Serious?
July 2018 June 2018 May 2018  April 2018   March 2018

CASE REPORTS

Leg Pain in a 34-Year-Old Man

Urgent message: The ability to differentiate deep vein thrombosis from other diagnoses such as cellulitis is …
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Cervical Facetitis—An Unusual Cause of Neck Pain

Urgent message: Though neck pain is a common complaint among patients presenting to urgent care centers, …
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An Uncommon Clinical Presentation of Ovarian Torsion

Urgent message: Abdominal pain is an extremely common complaint in the urgent care setting. The differential …
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Cardiopulmonary Emergency Masquerading as Gastrointestinal Symptoms

Nihar B. Gala, MD Urgent message: The ability to distinguish between urgent and truly emergent conditions …
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A 38-Year-Old Man with Chest Pain

Urgent message: When a relatively young patient presents to urgent care with chest pain, there may …
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HEALTH LAW

Which Way to Go: The Pros and Cons of 1099 vs W-2 Income for Urgent Care Physicians

Urgent message: To avoid running afoul of labor and tax laws, urgent care operators should understand …
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Effectively Utilizing 90-Day Probationary Periods for New Employees

Urgent message: A 90-day probationary period suspends the standard employment rules for new employees, enabling them …
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New Rules for Beneficiary Inducements at Urgent Care Centers

Urgent message: Unlike other retail businesses, which commonly provide gift cards and other incentives in marketing …
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The Importance and Validity of Nondisclosure and Nonsolicitation Clauses for Urgent Care Center Owners

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care, LLC and is …
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Misunderstanding Occupational Medicine Services ‘Protocols’

Misunderstanding Occupational Medicine Services ‘Protocols’  Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity …
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CLINICAL CHALLENGES

A 52-Year-Old Man with Recent-Onset Dizziness

Case A 52-year-old man presented to urgent care with a 2-day history of dizziness. He denies chest pain, syncope, shortness …
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A Toddler with a Sudden Limp

Case The patient is a 3-year-old female who is brought to your urgent care center by her parents, who report …
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A 3-Year-Old Girl with Vesicles on Her Palms and Soles

Case A 3-year-old girl was brought to urgent care with small widespread vesicles, including on her palms and soles. She …
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A 34-Year-Old Woman with an Unidentified Insect Sting

Case The patient is a 34-year-old woman who has just returned from the first camping trip of the year with …
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A 17-Year-Old Male with Knee Pain After a Fall

Case The patient is a 17-year-old male who presents to urgent care with anterior knee pain after a fall while …
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OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE

New Quest Diagnostics Data Show Drug Use Among Workers Remains High

It may come as no surprise to urgent care providers who offer occupational medicine services such as drug testing, but …
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Beware Patients Who’ll Go to Great—Great—Lengths to Pass Drug Tests

The opiate crisis and legalization of marijuana in some states has upped the ante for occupational medicine providers charged with …
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Proposed Law Could Diminish Need for Workplace Drug Testing in California

As we’ve discussed here previously, the more widespread legalization of marijuana use around the country is presenting any number of …
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Telemedicine Meets Occ Med Rehab in New Concentra Initiative in California

Workers who need to rehab injuries can now do so without schlepping to a physical therapy practice under a new …
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Foundation of Occupational Medicine in the Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: Much has been written about the integration of occupational medicine into urgent care practice. However, doing so successfully …
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Revenue Cycle Management

Clarifying the Coding for Splint and Cast Application by Nonphysicians

Q: I would like clarification on an article I read in The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine (JUCM) online archive …
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New Medicare Cards

Q: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) started issuing new Medicare cards to beneficiaries in April of this …
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Reduction in Reimbursements for Modifier -25

Q: Last fall, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield sent a notice to physicians in several states regarding their intent to …
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The Incidentals of ‘Incident-to’ Billing

Q: I plan to hire physician assistants and other nonphysician providers in my urgent care clinic. I understand that I …
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Turning Patient Accounts Over to a Collection Agency—the Right Way

Q: Should patient accounts ever get turned over to a collection agency? A: The altruistic nature of running an urgent …
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DEVELOPING DATA

Urgent Care Ownership: Corporations on the Rise, Physicians and Hospitals on the Decline

The urgent care industry—always revolutionary compared with other practice settings—is undergoing a revolution of its own. First, entrepreneurial physicians ruled …
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One More Look at Head Injury Presentations in Urgent Care

In this issue, we’ve offered an urgent care perspective on which patients presenting with head injury are most likely to …
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When is On-Demand Care Most In-Demand?

The combination of convenience and quality is the hallmark of the urgent care industry. As time goes on and patients …
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A Snapshot of Flu Vaccination Rates

The ongoing 2017–18 flu season is already one of the worst in recent memory. Recently released data from the Centers …
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Focusing on the Growth—and Healthcare Savings—of Urgent Care

We all know urgent care has been growing steadily, nearly since its inception. Hard data on the size of the …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care

Abstracts in Urgent Care – July 2018

CDC Attributes 200+ Cases of Coagulopathy to Synthetic Cannaboids Key point: “Marijuana alternatives” are widely available—and being blamed for multiple …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care – June 2018

Some Oral Antibiotics Up Risk for Kidney Stones Key point: Oral antibiotics are associated with an increased risk for nephrolithiasis …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care – May 2018

Factors Influencing Provider Efficiency—or Inefficiency—in the ED Key point: Emergency department study on provider efficiency has relevance to urgent care …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care – April 2018

ACP Eases Up on A1c Ceiling for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Key point: The American College of Physicians suggests …
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Abstracts in Urgent Care – March 2018

Confirmed Flu Ups Short-Term Risk for MI Key point:  Patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza are almost six times more likely to …
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Anger Management: Hostile Encounters in Urgent Care

Eliminating disruption, distraction, and dissatisfaction is paramount to delivering efficient and high-quality care these days. More than ever, urgent cares …
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Slow Medicine: ‘Unprescribing’ America

#TimesUp; #NeverAgain; #Privacy; #OpioidCrisis; #BlackLivesMatter…. The last year has been a dramatic one for turning points in long-festering social issues …
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Chasing Flu: Predictably Unpredictable

I have managed urgent cares for nearly 20 years and can officially say that predicting flu is for fools! Perhaps …
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The Change Gang: Adopting a Disruptive Culture

We’ve all heard it: Why do we have to change? This is the way we’ve always done things! Change is …
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Hiring Right Requires the Right Approach

Employing an organizational psychologist or paying for expensive employee screening services is simply not in the cards for most urgent …
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