Practice Management
Most people who have worked in urgent care for any length of time could share stories of patients who become unruly, belligerent, or downright violent. Sometimes it’s out of frustration over a situation, a reaction to pain, or under the influence of substances. A report on NBC New York recently focused the public’s attention on this problem as it pertains to emergency rooms. It quoted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealing that 47% …
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As we’ve pointed out—and as has been emphasized in mainstream media reports in recent weeks—far more Americans are at risk for contracting influenza than the coronavirus. The same holds true for associated deaths, as well. At least 15 million people have been diagnosed with flu so far this season. Mortality projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention range from 14,000 to 36,000. Compare that with the fact that as of February 17 there …
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Already one of the largest U.S. companies to offer both urgent care and occupational medicine services, Concentra is continuing a slow but consistent practice of buying small local and regional urgent care and occ med networks. The latest acquisition is southern Colorado’s EmergiCare, which operates four urgent care locations in Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Concentra already operates 21 clinics in the region. Over the past 2 years, Concentra has acquired 12 other occupational medicine providers, …
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While acknowledging that traditional primary care settings, including pediatric practices, remain “the foundation of pediatric care,” a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics reveals that a growing number of parents in the U.S. are choosing urgent care and other acute care settings instead of their pediatrician’s office when their children are sick. After looking at more than 71 million pediatric primary care visits by commercially insured children between 2008 and 2016, the researchers reported that …
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We told you recently that legislators in Massachusetts have again picked up efforts to impose new regulations and licensing standards on urgent care operators there—all of which would result in operators paying more to the state, of course. The crux of the argument is whether urgent care centers operate more like hospitals (in which case they would have to be licensed as such) or like physician offices. Now the president and CEO of the Massachusetts …
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As efforts to grant pharmacists authority to prescribe certain medications pick up in some states, concern is growing among urgent care insiders that such a change in the clinical landscape could actually be detrimental to patients’ health, and certainly degrade the value that urgent care and other provider-based settings have to offer. The potential risk to patients was illustrated in a recent New York Times article that detailed how overwhelmed pharmacists already are, working long …
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Urgent care has taken a leadership position among healthcare settings when it comes to fighting antibiotic resistance. The Urgent Care Association initiated an Antibiotic Stewardship Commendation Program, wherein urgent care operators are recognized for fulfilling certain criteria demonstrating responsible antibiotic prescribing. And some large urgent care companies have instituted strict internal controls to ensure antibiotics are prescribed according to accepted guidelines. All those efforts, geared toward stemming antibiotic resistance, may be being undermined by inappropriate …
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Pre-exposure prophylactic treatment against HIV (PrEP) has been a controversial topic in urgent care. While the lifesaving potential of the once-daily pill is undeniable, some operators and clinicians believe offering it encourages high-risk behaviors. Others say it’s too difficult to receive fair compensation for the high level of patient education and follow-up that’s required. Some, on the other hand, say the hassle is worth the satisfaction of doing what one can to curb a serious …
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Some patients are more forthcoming than others when it comes to acknowledging pain, or how long a given symptom has been present. You should know, though, that there’s precedent for an urgent care provider being held liable for taking that at face value in a malpractice case. Just this week an urgent care center in Idaho was hit with a multimillion dollar judgment after being sued by a patient who had injured his back while …
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With the current coronavirus outbreak continuing internationally—including more than 42,700 cases and over a thousand deaths in China, as well as 13 confirmed cases in the U.S. to date, the World Health Organization was moved to create an all-new name to aid in tracking and to properly reflect the nature of the pathogen. What has been known up to now as 2019-nCoV will be called COVID-19 from this point forward. This will be important for …
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