StuWilli, Author at Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Urgent Care–Primary Care Partnership Lauded

A pair of medical practices—one urgent care and one primary care—received a municipal business award for a cooperative venture to make care as accessible as possible for their surrounding communities. Immediate Care Walk-In and CentraState Healthcare System forged an affiliation in 2015 to open a combination primary/urgent care facility in East Windsor, NJ. For their efforts, they received the town’s 2016 Business Award for Community Enhancement, based on polling of residents who were asked to …

New Data Show Same Diagnoses, Higher Costs at Freestanding EDs vs Urgent Care

Despite a growing stack of negative press clippings and legislative scrutiny, freestanding emergency rooms continue to take in patients off the street and charge them far more than they’d pay for the same services at urgent care centers. New data from four institutions in Texas reveal that mean out-of-pocket spending jumped 66% between 2012 and 2015 in the Lone Star State. Out-of-pocket costs grew by 38.5% at hospital-based EDs and by just 8.9% at urgent …

Panel: CMS Not Doing Enough to Inform Physicians of Changes to Medicare Cards

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is going to issue new Medicare cards, replacing beneficiaries’ Social Security numbers with unique ID numbers, by April 2019. However, the Health & Human Services Advisory Panel on Outreach and Educations says CMS isn’t doing enough to share more about the process with healthcare providers, who will have to make significant changes in their billing practices as the new ID card system is implemented gradually; CMS will start …

You Could End Up Paying Millions for Employees’ HIPAA Violations

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) has made it very clear that it’s the operator’s responsibility to police its own data policies—even among employees. Memorial Healthcare Systems (MHS) found that out the hard way, and now has to pay HHS $5.5 million to settle “potential violations” of HIPAA’s Privacy and Security rules, and to implement a “robust” 3-year corrective action plan and resolution agreement. HHS came …

Urgent Care May Become Even More Important as Physician Shortage Approaches

By 2030, there will be a significant gap between the number of physicians who are practicing in the U.S. and the number needed to care for our aging population, according to new data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). At best, it would amount to a shortfall of 40,800 providers—at worst, 104,900, the association says. For primary care, the estimated shortage will be between 8,700 and 43,100 physicians by 2030. Emergency medicine, anesthesiology, …

April 2017

Dull, Constant Back Pain After a Fall: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA)

Case A 67-year-old male presents with acute mid-low back pain following a fall. He describes the pain as “dull and constant.” When asked if the pain is worse with range of motion, he replies, “I think so.” Physical exam reveals he is afebrile, has a pulse of 102, respirations 20, and blood pressure 122/78. His abdomen is soft and nontender without rigidity, rebound, or guarding; there is no bruising or distention. His back appears normal, …

The Top 10 Mistakes Hospitals Make in the Urgent Care Business

Introduction It should not be surprising that when hospital executives and personnel sit down to discuss issues and problems around population health, accountable care organization (ACO) integration, network development, cost containment, new product lines, hospital readmission rates, care coordination, and related topics they often arrive at hospital-centric and hospital-based solutions to solve them.1 As hospitals and hospital networks look to urgent care centers to address some of these issues through hospital/urgent care affiliations, joint ventures, …

Acute Compartment Syndrome—An Urgent Care Review

Urgent message: Acute compartment syndrome (ACS) is an important high-risk diagnosis to exclude when evaluating peripheral extremity injury. Providers must maintain a high clinical index of suspicion with careful attention to the history and mechanics of injury in an urgent care setting to preclude the devastating, rapidly developing sequela of ACS. Missing a case of ACS may result in significant morbidity—and even mortality. Awareness of both subtle and overt signs will ensure the best care …

Who Owns Patient Medical Records?

Urgent message: While historically there has been an understanding that patients own the information contained in their medical records, and that providers own the record itself, the current lack of a federal law governing the ownership of medical records poses a conundrum when those records are stored electronically. New challenges demand innovative solutions—often in the form of new technologies that make life easier. Certainly technology has advanced healthcare to improve and lengthen our lives. Yet, …

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