Practice Management
The patient is a 50-year-old man who presents with foot pain at the site of a right-foot amputation. He has a history of chronic renal disease, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. View the ECG taken and consider what the diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page.
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It’s widely recognized that while freestanding emergency rooms are perfectly good places to go for walk-in care, the cost associated with that care is exorbitant compared with urgent care (and even more so compared with primary care or retail clinics). The problem is compounded by the fact that many patients who visit freestanding EDs think they’re walking into an urgent care center and are later hit with surprise bills. A new study in Academic Emergency …
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With the decade about to come to a close, Crain’s Health Pulse considered what some of the biggest healthcare stories of the 2010s were—concluding that the ongoing “rise of urgent care” is significant among them. A Look Back at the 2010s: The Rise of Urgent Care notes that what made the period of 2010–2019 so good for urgent care as a business model is likely to spur further growth in 2020 and beyond. Where evolving …
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Urgent care figures prominently in one Florida county’s efforts to curb excessive emergency room spending while also educating patients on how to choose the best setting for what ails them. A review of their 2018–2019 fiscal year told Volusia County, Florida officials that residents had an expensive habit: calling 911 when they didn’t have a way to get to a doctor’s office or going to the emergency room for relatively minor illness and injuries. The …
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Children (and even some adults) put things in their mouths that don’t belong there—and sometimes they wind up being swallowed or inhaled. That risk may be especially high as holiday gifts are explored and batteries fall into small hands. The next free webinar offered by JUCM will feature Hansel Otero, MD, director of international pediatric radiology education and outreach at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia sharing real-life cases (and accompanying x-rays) of patients with foreign bodies …
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We told you recently that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its estimate of the number of American who die every year from an antibiotic-resistant infections (from the long-held total of 23,000 to around 35,000 deaths). Just last week, however, the CDC revealed that the actual number is thought to be 44,000 deaths annually, out of 3 million people who become ill with resistant infections. At the same time, though, prevention efforts like …
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Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve and Day move many people to embrace religious and cultural festivities with family and friends. For those who are isolated, experiencing a downturn in their life experience, or struggling with mental or emotional illness, however, the winter holidays usher in additional risk for suicide. While the overall trend for suicides in the U.S. is concerning—suicide rates increased 25.4% between 1999 and 2016—January continues to be the month in which …
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Expanding Your Urgent Care Product Line with Massage Therapy, Aesthetics, and Body Sculpting Urgent message: Maintaining not only growth but also profitability in the increasingly competitive urgent care marketplace requires a willingness to seek out and assess new services, and the wherewithal to offer those deemed to be a good fit for your business model. “Spa services” may be one such possibility warranting consideration. Michael F. Boyle MD, MBA, FACEP, Derrick Cooney, MD, and Keith …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: While metrics are essential for measuring a business strategy’s effectiveness, losing sight of the strategy in favor of a sole focus on the metrics carries the risk of undermining the very objective the strategy was meant to achieve. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Or …
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What do you think it would cost to get 6 minutes of exposure on television, demonstrating your clinical expertise by talking about a wide range of high-interest health topics? It’s actually a moot question, because a) you probably couldn’t afford it and b) if you’re the chief medical officer of Peachtree Immediate Care in Atlanta, you just got it for free. James Yost, MD sat down with one of the hosts of 11 Alive’s atl&co …
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