Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

ASD Services Fit With Existing UC Business Models

Urgent Message: Rapid growth in the autism spectrum disorder services (ASD) sector may present an expansion opportunity for urgent care operators who take the initiative to develop the necessary infrastructure. Citation: Ayers A. ASD Services Fit With Existing UC Business Models, J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 19 (1): 33-36 As the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to rise—now affecting 1 in 36 children in the United States—demand for accessible services is greater than …

Few Misused Rx Drugs Prescribed in Urgent Care

According to the United States Department of Justice, the most common prescription drugs that are misused fall into 1 of 3 categories: opioid pain relievers/narcotics; depressants; and stimulants. Experity EMR data encapsulating 17,526,083 prescriptions written at 3,037 urgent care centers from January 1 to August 20, 2024, shows the vast majority of urgent care centers do not prescribe these medications at all, and of those that do, these medications represent a very small percentage of …

Guardrails for Nonsufficient Funds and Credit Card on File Fees

Urgent Message: Urgent care operators must navigate emerging federal, state, and payer regulations when developing financial policies that require payment by credit card and when setting fees for bounced checks and denied credit card charges. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Citation: Ayers A. Guardrails for Nonsufficient Funds and Credit Card on File Fees. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18 (11): 41-43 Urgent care centers frequently charge a nonsufficient funds (NSF) fee when a patient’s check …

When An Urgent Care Contracts as Primary Care

Over the past 2 decades, urgent care has been on the forefront of consumerism. Increasingly, healthcare consumers are realizing how much they are contributing to the cost of healthcare delivery through taxes and payroll premium deductions, and therefore, they’re more motivated than ever to attain the full value of the benefits they’ve paid for. Urgent care has remained focused on the consumers’ sense of value by appealing directly to patients as clinics market their convenient …

NPS Predicts Success in UC

The net promoter score (NPS) is a customer experience metric devised by business researcher Fred Reichheld, MBA, which measures how likely customers are to recommend a product or service on a scale of 0-10. His 2006 book, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth, describes NPS as the most predictive metric of a company’s future success. As a benchmark, NPS scores are reported on the world’s leading brands. A review of more than …

Patient Arrival Times In Urgent Care

The table shows the percentage of patients within an average day who arrived during each hour of operations, based on more than 13,000,000 patient encounters from January 1 to March 31, 2024, recorded in the Experity EMR. A patient arriving anywhere between 7:00AM and 7:59AM, for example, is categorized as arriving during the 7:00AM hour. This data is useful in determining staffing levels and opening hours. If the number of patient arrivals per hour exceeds …

The Urgent Need for STI Testing in Urgent Care Centers

Urgent Message: With STI rates rising, urgent care centers have a unique opportunity to address a pressing public health need and increase patient volumes and revenue by adding STI testing services. Citation: Ayers A. The Urgent Need for STI Testing in Urgent Care Centers. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(10)39-42 Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are acquired every day.1 …

2024 Urgent Care’s Top 100 by Number of Locations

Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc The following table summarizes the 100 largest urgent care operators by number of locations as of May 2024, based on data provided by National Urgent Care Realty and Experity. Because of the significant number of private operators that also operate facilities with hospital partners, this year’s list delineates the breakdown of health-system-affiliated locations. Data is reported by the parent entity as opposed to regional brands, partnerships, or affiliations. Of the nation’s …

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Urgent Care Site Selection

Urgent Message: Location and accessibility are keys to success for any urgent care. Operators must avoid common pitfalls when evaluating a site for their next venture. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, is President of Experity Consulting and is Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Citation: Ayers, A. Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Urgent Care Site Selection. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(9): 22-25 Experience tells us that friendly service, competent providers, short wait …

Categorization of Codes Most Frequently Used in Urgent Care

International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes—maintained by the World Health Organization and published in the United States by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—standardize the categorization and reporting of patient diagnoses. Currently, U.S. healthcare operators use the ICD-10 edition. The analysis below examines 2023 urgent care visits logged by users of Experity’s electronic medical record, revealing that 28,686 diagnosis codes were documented in urgent care patient medical records. While it’s logical to conclude …

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