Practice Management
It’s relatively early in the season, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that influenza activity is already rising—and several markers are higher than normally seen this early. Four children have already died this season, and four of the CDC’s 10 regions are at or above their regional baselines. Another bad sign: Australia, whose data are often a predictor of flu severity in the U.S., just completed its worst flu season on record. …
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You promote your urgent care operation well, hire competent clinicians, and offer a robust array of services. So, why don’t more patients return? The problem might be that they don’t feel any sense of connection to your clinic; even worse, the same could be true of your staff. If that’s the case, you might find the solution in the Urgent Care Association’s next live webinar, during which James Jiloty, PHR, MSHR, MSLD will lead a …
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The parents of a Pittsburgh-area boy knew exactly what was wrong, but had no idea how serious the consequences could be. Somehow the 5-year-old dislodged a small, lithium disc battery from a fidget spinner and promptly swallowed it. The parents rushed him into the car with the intent of taking him to the emergency room, but as he became more agitated they opted for the closest urgent center. Ultimately, he needed immediate surgery to remove …
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A study by West Virginia University has shown that urgent care not only has great potential to improve the chance for positive health outcomes in rural areas, but also holds great promise for operators who are willing to make the investment in the country. Joshua Hall, associate professor of economics and director of the Center for Free Enterprise at WVU’s College of Business and Economics, led a team of researchers who considered the entry of …
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Kaiser Permanente in Southern California reports that using computer alerts to inform physicians when antibiotics may not be the best course of treatment for sinusitis reduced the chance of an antibiotic being prescribed—with some qualifiers. The study, published recently in the American Journal of Managed Care, tracked nearly 22,000 cases of acute sinusitis in adults in primary care and urgent care offices. Researchers found that clinical decision support was associated with a 22% decrease in …
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A New York urgent care center, several of its staff members, and a company that manufactures practice devices for medical education are all being sued by a woman who claims she became serious ill by being given a nonsterile solution that was actually intended only for training purposes. The suit alleges that in December 2014 staff administered IV fluids from a practice IV bag made by Wallcur LLC instead of the proper sterile solution that …
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Trying to relocate nonemergent patients from overcrowded emergency rooms to clinics and urgent care centers by ambulance led to out-of-control costs in the San Diego area. In addition, it’s been shown that some 30% of people who call 911 for an ambulance didn’t even need emergent care to begin with. So, health officials hit on the idea of calling a taxi or an Uber to take patients where they need to be. The question is, …
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Plans to reopen an emergency room that closed in 2014 have been scrapped in favor of expanding the hours of a nearby urgent care center in Spokane, WA. Administrators at the Mann-Grandstaff Veterans Affairs Medical Center haven’t hired enough physicians to staff the ED, so rather than delay further or try to get by on insufficient staffing, the plan is to keep the urgent care center open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. …
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eClinicalWorks has been hit with a $1 billion class-action lawsuit over allegations that it failed to protect the security of millions of patient’s records—and that one patient with cancer actually died as a result of faulty patient EHRs. The latter charge says the deceased was “unable to determine reliably when his first symptoms of cancer appeared as his medical records failed to accurately display his medical history on progress notes.” More broadly, the suit contends …
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Essential Health says it went to great lengths to make sure employees had time to get their flu shots or apply for an opt-out on medical, religious, or philosophical grounds. It also tried to make it as easy as possible by offering multiple, free vaccine clinics, sending vaccine carts around so workers wouldn’t even have to leave their post. It provided ample incentive, too, notifying workers that if they did not get vaccinated (or an …
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