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A patient recently told local news outlet Arizona’s Family that she was locked inside an urgent care center in Phoenix just as the staff was leaving for the day. After trying an exit door and setting off an alarm, the patient was later let out by a staff member who had already left the center. The patient—who spoke on the condition of anonymity—was seen at the end of the day and had been waiting in an exam room for a prescription. As a result of the incident, the center’s operator conducted an internal review of its procedures and ultimately terminated the staff directly responsible, according to the news report.
Checking the checklist: “This is not the first time and probably not the last time this will happen. That’s because up to 40% of urgent care centers turn away patients during the last hour of the day, and the staff leave at 8PM sharp,” says Alan Ayers, President of Urgent Care Consultants and Senior Editor of JUCM. “Whether such behavior is due to strict zero-overtime policies, scheduling that allows no slack for opening and closing tasks, or staff expectations of a timely departure, the result—when centers lock their doors as staff leaves at the posted closing time—is patients either get turned away prior to closing or end-of-day checklists go unexecuted.”
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