Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: Nondisclosure and nonsolicitation clauses are necessary to protect an urgent care center from providers and staff utilizing information gained in their employment in ways that may be damaging to the business, but to be effective, their restrictions and limitations must be understood. Businesses frequently rely upon important …
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Millennials Are the Biggest Segment of the Workforce—What Does That Mean for Urgent Care?
Urgent message: As millions of the “millennial generation” enter and advance in the workplace, urgent care centers must adapt to remain competitive and sought-after employers in their communities. The healthcare landscape is ever-evolving, and is currently experiencing sweeping change across many fronts. Whether it’s, say, changing reimbursement models or innovation in how care gets delivered, urgent care operators are having to adapt to rapid change at a breakneck pace. Going beyond novel patient cohorts and …
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Are You Personally ‘Fit’ to Join an Urgent Care Start-up?
Urgent message: Over the past 15 years, the growth of urgent care in the United States has been fueled largely by independent entrepreneurs. Joining a start-up practice can provide tremendous advancement and financial opportunity, but such also comes with the uncertainty, change, and creativity of managing a fledgling new business. Joining a start-up company can be an exciting moment in an employee’s career. While stepping onboard a business during its early stages can feel risky, …
Read MoreMisunderstanding Occupational Medicine Services ‘Protocols’
Misunderstanding Occupational Medicine Services ‘Protocols’ 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: Urgent care owners should be aware of the misuse of the term “protocol” and the scope of employers’ directions concerning the processing of employees in their centers. In addition, urgent care owners need to be diligent when they believe that one of their …
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Responding to Personal Technology in the Urgent Care Workplace
Urgent message: Given the ubiquity of smartphones and other mobile devices, urgent care operators must have a strategy and policy in place to deal with the privacy implications of personal technologies in the workplace. Mobile devices like tablets and smartphones have become ubiquitous in everyday life, and employers in every industry are increasingly seeing employees access their devices throughout the workday. While concerns over lost productivity should concern all employers, healthcare is unique in the …
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Successful Site Selection in Urgent Care
Urgent message: As a retail delivery channel for healthcare, success in urgent care depends on successfully executing the “retail” elements of the urgent care delivery model—the first of which is “location.” 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 care differs from other types of medicine in that it adheres to a retail delivery model; successful urgent …
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Retaining and Developing Your Best Employees
Urgent message: An urgent care operation’s success is determined greatly by the quality of its workforce. Consequently, in increasingly competitive labor markets, urgent care operators need to invest in their strongest employees to get them to stay. 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. While we often point to location, marketing, systems, and other “success factors” in …
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A Candid Look at Physician Misconduct
Urgent message: Physicians are expected to be leaders in the urgent care practice, but they are also human and prone to inappropriate behavior. It’s thus critical for urgent care operators to establish processes for investigating, documenting, and responding to allegations of physician misconduct. 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. On any given day, there is no …
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Implications of HIPAA and Employee Confidentiality Rules on Positive Drug Test Results
Urgent message: In addition to drug testing their own employees, many urgent care centers offer drug testing as a service to other employers. Therefore, it’s important to understand the laws affecting the privacy of drug screen results. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine Introduction It’s standard procedure throughout the country for employers to require …
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Urgent Care 2.0: Health Systems Taking the Retail Approach to the Next Level
Urgent message: Spurred by disruptive market entrants and burgeoning consumerism, health systems are increasingly adopting retail principles to better meet consumers’ shifting expectations. Thus, urgent care stakeholders, either as standalone operators or partners with a hospital/health system, must further expand upon their retail offerings in order to fend off increased competition. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of …
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