Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Bill Would Help Pay ‘Reasonable Costs’ for Veterans to Visit Urgent Care

With an eye toward reducing the heavy economic burden stemming from patients visiting emergency rooms needlessly, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA) is pitching legislation that would require the Department of Veteran’s Affairs to pay for care provided to veterans in urgent care centers. Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA) plans to introduce companion legislation in the House of Representatives. As written, the Veterans Emergency Room Relief Act of 2017 seeks to: Pave the way for veterans to receive …

Massachusetts HHS Head: Let Specialized Urgent Care Help Clear ED Logjams

Massachusetts’ secretary of Health and Human Services is on record as saying urgent care is ideally suited to help reduce overcrowding emergency rooms, at least in Boston. As a guest on Herald Radio’s Morning Meeting program, Marylou Sudders referenced a recent report that patients are waiting nearly an hour to be seen, on average, in the EDs at Boston Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her proposed solution would be to have more urgent …

VA Telemedicine Plans Are at Odds with Some Licensing Laws

Despite being ahead of the curve on telemedicine, the Department of Veterans Affairs is finding its progress hindered by licensing laws in some states. The “problem” is that sometimes virtual visits take place between a provider who is on federal government property and a patient who isn’t; this is especially dicey if the provider isn’t licensed in the state the patient is in. The VA says federal legislation would clear the path for providers to …

Would Your Staff Turn Away a Patient in Need 10 Minutes Before Opening?

Here’s the scenario: Your clinic opens at 8. A nonclinical staff member arrives at 7:50, only to find a woman in distress waiting at the locked front door, complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath and heading toward a full-blown panic. You hope your staffer would: Let the patient in immediately, then call the first clinician scheduled to work to see how close they are to arriving Let the patient in immediately and call …

The Top Six Reasons Patients Seek Emergency and Urgent Care

The increased wait times in emergency rooms and explosion in the popularity of urgent care have been (and continue to be) well documented. Not as much attention has been paid to why there’s so much more traffic. A study soon to be published in Academic Emergency Medicine reveals a few of the answers—and some of them support the notion that urgent care fulfills unique needs, either clinically or in terms of patient preference: Limited access …

Midwest Urgent Care Leaders Head to Michigan to Drive Change!

The Urgent Care Association of Michigan, working with the Urgent Care Association and the College of Urgent Care Medicine, is laying the groundwork for its regional conference, scheduled to take place July 17 and 18 at The Henry Hotel in Dearborn, MI. Built around the theme of Drive Change!, the conference will feature 30 sessions broken into four tracks (Midwest Clinician, UC Management, Clinical Support & Super MA, and Hands-on Lab). Content is designed for …

Dusty Bikes and Rusty Riders Make for a Spike in Injured Cyclists

A new study by Safe Kids Worldwide reveals more than 400,000 children are injured in bike, scooter, skateboard, and roller blade accidents every year. Now that wheels of every variety are coming out of the garage for the first time in months, there’s an opportunity to stress your urgent care center’s vital role in community health and safety—before and after injuries occur. First, ask patients if they’re planning to make good on promises to get …

‘Relationship-Based Primary Care’ Experiment Closes Up Shop

UnitedHealth Group thought it was a great idea at the time: offer no-cost primary and behavioral care, in the hope that the company would bring in enough money through claims, while also building a loyal customer base. Detractors may say it was a nonstarter, or that the notion had merit but was poorly designed; some may even point the finger at the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare). Either way, the company is shutting down …

ED Wait Times Shorten After Telemedicine is Added

The emergency room at the Washington (DC) Hospital Center had a statistically validated reputation for long waits—more than 115 minutes, on average. They’ve managed to lop an hour off that, though, thanks to a new telemedicine system that’s helped reduce clutter and time waiting to be seen. Employing a system called Teletriage, by EmOpti, the MedStar-owned facility now uses video to allow providers to see a patient remotely during the triage process. Triage nurses start …

Telemedicine is Taking Root in Urgent Care

Growing investment by service providers, occupational medicine companies, and entrepreneurs, along with wider acceptance by health plans, seems to confirm that telemedicine is no longer the Next Big Thing, but a newly essential service that urgent care operators need to consider offering. Most recently, U.S. HealthWorks announced that it’s launching a comprehensive telemedicine program called USHW CareConnectNOW, which will link patients to state-licensed medical providers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So far, …

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