Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Post-Visit Follow-up Calls: Improving Patient Satisfaction, Center Profitability and Clinical Outcomes

Urgent message: Call-backs within 24 to 48 hours of discharge can identify potential complications, ensure that instructions are followed, and reinforce a positive visit experience. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Introduction Urgent care centers provide immediate medical attention to patients who feel their symptoms are too pressing to wait for an appointment with their primary care physician, but not serious enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room (ER). With extended night/weekend hours, …

Achieving Consistency and Scalability in Urgent Care Service Delivery

Urgent message: Investing time in designing repeatable processes and documentation can pay off in a more efficient, effective, and scalable urgent care operation. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Introduction Despite management’s best intentions to deliver extraordinary patient experiences, many times employees just don’t know what to do. Front-line staff members are often conflicted between “doing what’s right” for the business, avoiding management scrutiny, exerting extra unrewarded effort, and “doing what’s right” for the …

Protecting Your Urgent Care Center Against Robbery

Author: Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, Experity Content Advisor, Urgent Care Association of America Associate Editor, Journal of Urgent Care Medicine Your urgent care center, although focused on providing medical treatment, is still essentially a retail business. Your patients are your customers, and they come and go; financial transactions (cash, credit card, insurance) take place; and employees deliver clinical care and customer service simultaneously. Hence, urgent care centers, like other retail establishments, face the very …

Establishing Your Online Presence: Website Basics for Urgent Care Operators

Urgent message: Establishing a practice website takes careful planning and execution but it can enhance traditional marketing efforts by providing a central repository of relevant information for prospective patients. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity When consumers experience a minor illness or injury, numerous questions arise, such as “What do these symptoms mean?” “Can I do something about this myself?” and “What kind of help do I need, where do I get it, and …

Dealing With Employee Termination: Smart Strategies for Optimizing Your Team

Urgent message: Letting employees go is never easy. This article offers tips for protecting your business and yourself if termination is necessary. Among the key recommendations are compiling documentation and seeking legal advice. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Letting an employee go, whether due to job performance or economic necessity, is never a pleasant situation. Although an urgent care center strives to provide high-quality patient care, it’s also a business. This means that …

Language Interpretation Services in the Urgent Care Center

Urgent message: Cultivating trust requires good communication and if a language barrier stands between patient and provider, not only are clinical outcomes jeopardized, but the urgent care operation can be subject to legal liability. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity The demographics of the United States are rapidly changing. Today a language other than English is spoken in 55 million households, 67% of which speak Spanish, and an estimated 19% of Americans have Limited …

Offering Patient WiFi in the Urgent Care Center

Urgent message: The costs of and barriers to adding WiFi to an urgent care center are low and the benefits include a better patient experience and improved perception of wait times. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity WiFi is now ubiquitous. Step into most any coffee house, theme restaurant, library, shopping mall or other service establishment and you’ll find that Internet access is readily available and usually free of charge. Many hospitals have also introduced …

Understanding the Landscape of Occupational Medicine

Urgent message: Expanding into occupational medicine requires a long-term commitment and willingness to respond to employer and employee needs. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Urgent care providers have conventionally defined their offering as “treatment of acutely rising episodic medical conditions.” However, widespread acceptance of the urgent care business model-retail-facing locations, extended hours, and walk-in service—has led many urgent care centers to expand into longitudinal primary care as well as occupational medicine. Specifically, when people …

Making the Most of Locum Tenens in Your Urgent Care

Urgent message: Despite the best staff planning, urgent care centers sometimes need to turn to locum tenens firms to fill the “bench.” Understanding the challenges these firms face is one key to success. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Regardless of how aesthetically pleasing an urgent care facility, how convenient its hours, how creative its marketing, or how sophisticated its technology, the ultimate “product” is its clinicians and the solutions they provide for patients’ immediate …

Wear Your Brand: Increasing Awareness of Your Urgent Care Center

Urgent message: An urgent care entrepreneur is the “product” and must become skilled at promoting him/herself. When you “wear your brand,” you call attention to what you have to offer, generating awareness of an interest in your urgent care center. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, ExperityOn a recent visit to a popular bakery-café, I noticed a young woman on the sofa working on her laptop. For passersby, there was no question about which candidate would …

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