Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Practice Management

 

Urgent Care News

Mixed Emotions: Most Physicians Trust Patients with Opioids, but Fear a New Drug Crisis

Physicians’ perspectives on prescribing opioid pain medications continue to be wildly contradictory, even in the …
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Behavioral Health Services Continue to Grow in Urgent Care

Just last week, we told you that Tennessee-based Fast Pace Urgent Care was making an …
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Want More Time with Patients—and to Be Compensated for It? CMS Might Have That

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has finalized a rule intended to ease cumbersome—and …
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Amazon Is Wading Deeper into Primary Care—Internally (for Now, at Least)

Amazon is investing more resources into Amazon Care, its in-house primary care program in Seattle …
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Join JUCM and the CDC to Get Involved—and Save Lives—During Antibiotic Awareness Week

You know the numbers—some 23,000 American die every year from drug-resistant infections, painting a clear …
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Web Exclusive Articles

One Visit, Multiple Complaints: Meeting the Patient’s Needs without Giving Services Away

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is …
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POP or Drop: The Direction Your Urgent Care Operation Goes Is Up to You

Urgent message: Taking your business from stagnant to successful is not an easy task, but …
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Recognizing the Role of Medical Assistants in Urgent Care

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care …
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Inbound Referral Strategies for Urgent Care

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is …
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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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Clinical Articles

Pediatric Urgent Care—Specialized Medicine on the Front Lines

David Mathison, MD, MBA   Thirty years ago, there was widespread concern that specialty medicine was “a problem.” Consumers were …
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When Pregnant Patients Present to the Urgent Care Center

Urgent message: Care of the pregnant patient in urgent care can be complex, as every test or treatment needs to …
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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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Practice Management Articles

Urgent Care Looks to Find its Identity through Gen Z and Millennials

Urgent message: Younger consumers’ healthcare preferences are significantly different than that of older consumers. Urgent care providers have a prime …
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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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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

CASE REPORTS

An 11-Year-Old Girl with Red, Itchy Rash

Urgent message: Urticaria from cold exposure should be considered to prevent future anaphylaxis and angioedema with …
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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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HEALTH LAW

What Use Restrictions Can Landlords Impose on Urgent Care Facilities?

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

A 13-Year-Old Boy with Hip and Groin Pain After a Soccer Game

The patient is a 13-year-old boy who complains of pain in his right hip and groin after playing soccer. His …
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A Teenage Girl Who Suddenly Bruises Easily

A 17-year-old girl presents to urgent care complaining of easy bruising, especially on her legs. She couldn’t recall having any …
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A 78-Year-Old with Dizziness and No Chest Pain, Shortness of Breath, or Diaphoresis

The patient is a 78-year-old man who says he has felt dizzy for several hours. He denies chest pain, shortness …
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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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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

Keeping Up with CMS Policies on Medicare Cards and Flu Vaccine Reimbursements

New Medicare Card Transition Period Ends December 31, 2019 As a result of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act …
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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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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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