Practice Management
It won’t be news to you that patient visits dropped—precipitously at times—over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. And there’s no getting around the fact that business has suffered, though it’s also a plain fact that many patients are returning. What is probably less evident, but certainly interesting, is that between 2019 and 2020 urgent care centers saw less of a decline in utilization than emergency rooms and ambulatory surgery centers, as illustrated in the …
Read MoreWhen it comes to measuring your financial performance, metrics translate the actions of others into insight. They provide visibility into the efficacy of your overall billing process. But while they may shine a light on where you need to improve, they don’t tell you how to do it. For a better understanding of how well your clinic is optimizing the billing process, look at your everyday practices. Our revenue cycle management (RCM) experts compiled 10 …
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The patients is a 58-year-old male who presents with chest pain. He describes it as sharp, lasting seconds, and worsened by lifting objects at work. Review the initial ECG taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps could be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page. (Case presented by Tom Fadial, MD, Assistant Professor, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Sciences Center of Houston.)
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The patient is a 22-year-old male who presents for a pre-employment physical. During the exam, he mentions foot pain of several years’ duration, the origin of which he has no explanation. View the image taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.
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“Do you know what the first question anyone gets asked at these things nowadays?” asked a member at a recent industry event. I didn’t know the answer, and when I heard it, I was speechless. He said, “They ask you how many urgent cares you have.” Who are we becoming when this is our measurement of worthiness? When did size become the first thing that matters in our getting to know one another? Can we …
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KEY QUESTIONS What features differentiate acute pericarditis from ST-elevation myocardial infarction? What are the criteria for diagnosing acute pericarditis? What are the treatment options?
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Urgent message: There are no standardized guidelines for treating patients with chest pain in an urgent care clinic. Using a chest pain protocol with the Marburg Heart Score in a walk-in clinic can assist providers in assuring an appropriate level of care and support standardization in clinician decision-making for treating low-risk chest pain patients. Lorilea Johnson and Diane L. Smith Citation: Johnson L, Smith DL. Implementation of a rapid chest pain protocol in a walk-in …
Read MoreIt’s been 14 months since the new evaluation and management guidelines took effect. Many providers struggled to modify their documentation after 25 years with the 1995 guidelines. Urgent care practices stepped up with training programs to get through the learning curve with some new concepts. This month I’ll address some of the common questions that we receive. Do I have to meet the level in all the elements to bill a code? No, the level …
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Urgent message: Many urgent care operators took full advantage of opportunities to serve their communities during the pandemic, accumulating cash in the process. While many question what comes next, there’s no better time to grow your own urgent care business. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Networks and is Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and within …
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The January 2022 issue of JUCM led off with an editorial by Editor-in-Chief Joshua W. Russell, MD, MSc, FCUCM, FACEP about what he called “actually the epidemic that is decimating the healthcare workforce” and “a silent killer of healthcare careers.” He was referring to toxic positivity, or the practice of “encouraging” someone—in this case healthcare providers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic—to find and focus on the bright side rather than dwell on withering …
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