Practice Management
Emergency department (ED) visits in the United States appear to be improving when comparing length-of-stay numbers year-over-year, according to a recent analysis tracking utilization trends. The report examines visit duration in 4-quarter increments, showing the ED length of stay from Q2 2023 through Q1 2024 averaged 5 hours, compared to 4.2 hours in the period from Q2 2024 through Q1 2025. This represents a 16.2% reduction in length of stay. Meanwhile, the inpatient admission rate …
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Adding a new urgent care rooftop represents a significant investment by a health system. At the same time, every new urgent care ideally opens up a reliable referral stream for the institution’s other services to boost patient volume. This has been the prevailing model for health systems, but some markets are now witnessing a shift toward joint ventures and acquisitions rather than new builds, according to a report in Modern Healthcare. Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc, …
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As an alternative to the emergency department (ED), urgent care has an opportunity to meet the needs of the older adult population and earn their business. An Australian study published in BMC Geriatrics assessed what older adults value most in urgent care services through a survey that presented “discrete choice experiments”—in which respondents choose between hypothetical scenarios. Among the 995 people aged 65 years and older who participated in the survey, researchers found the strongest …
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In 2024, a total of 25 U.S. hospitals closed, as reported by Becker’s. Most of them cited changing community needs, rising operational costs, and evolving care models as reasons for ceasing operations. So far for this year, 19 hospitals have already closed, a pace that forecasts more unstable markets and unmet healthcare needs across the United States. Several hospitals included in this ongoing list have shuttered emergency departments, and all have produced job loss among …
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GoHealth Urgent Care has announced another health system joint venture, this time with Community Health Network in central Indiana. As part of the deal, 6 existing Community MedCheck urgent care centers will transition later this year to the Community-GoHealth Urgent Care brand, according to a press release. Future growth through new rooftops is also part of the long-term strategy. Earlier this month, GoHealth announced a similar joint venture for 81 UPMC centers in Pennsylvania and …
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A new analysis examining survey data from 37,000 physicians across all healthcare specialties found the average physician reported a 3.7% increase in pay, following a nearly 6% increase from the same survey just a year ago, conducted by physician-networking platform Doximity. The perpetual gender gap—in which women physicians are paid significantly less than their male counterparts—shows no sign of catching up. In this year’s survey, there is a 26% gap between women and men after …
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is aiming to construct a healthcare resource that has been notoriously difficult to create: a national provider directory. For decades, policies attempting to hold managed care organizations responsible for keeping up-to-date directories of their in-network physician practices, hospitals, surgery centers, and the like have been impractical for insurers to comply with and nearly impossible for policymakers to enforce. Reports of error-filled “ghost networks” that misrepresent the real-world …
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Piedmont Urgent Care has announced 2 separate expansions of its network this month. First, it acquired 4 MedPlus Immediate Care locations in the central Georgia region. With the addition of the Dublin, Eastman, Milledgeville and Macon, Georgia, centers, Piedmont now operates 6 urgent care centers with growth plans for the future, according to a press release. The branding at the centers will transition from MedPlus Immediate Care to Piedmont Urgent Care by the end of …
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A new urgent care has opened in Mercer County, Pennsylvania , but it’s not quite the rooftop most patients might expect. Thru Care is a drive-through center where patients check in at a drive-up window then complete their visit with a video monitor that connects them to the on-site clinician. The center accepts insurance or offers a flat $75 per visit fee, including medication fills for any prescription drugs that are in-stock at the center. …
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A new joint venture combines a hospital system in New Jersey with an urgent care network, creating AM/PM Urgent Care with Englewood Health. Established in 2013, AM/PM Walk-in Urgent Care is owned by CEO Wesley Thek, MD. Its partner, Englewood Health, has 100 locations, delivering inpatient and outpatient care. The combined entity serves 2 counties in New Jersey with 8 urgent care centers as well as virtual care. Over time, the plan is to expand …
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