Practice Management
An urgent care operator in Louisiana has found an original way to literally drive traffic for its flu shot program: For one day, it set up a drive-through flu shot station in the parking lot so patients could get their vaccination without even getting out of the car. The move added an extra layer of convenience above the core urgent care attribute of walk-in treatment and preventive care. Besides the obvious benefit of ensuring that …
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Ensign Group has sold its Seattle area urgent care centers to MultiCare Health System, a nonprofit healthcare group, for an undisclosed sum. The deal includes 14 existing clinics, along with two more under development. Ensign says it made the move to devote more of its resources to what it considers its own core strengths in subacute care, as well as skilled nursing, physical therapy, hospice, and other services. MultiCare already has 17 urgent care locations …
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Legislators in New Jersey are weighing the relative benefits of telemedicine in order to ensure the evolving technology is used properly—namely, that there’s no danger of virtual doctor visits taking the place of in-person care then the latter is clearly needed. Advocates point out that sometimes patients need to see a physician after even urgent care centers have close, though their symptoms don’t warrant an expensive trip to the emergency room. Detractors say some patients …
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Patients have options for getting to many care settings even if they’re unable to drive themselves or get a ride from a loved one. Some Medicaid patients arrive in the emergency room in an ambulance—even if they’re complaints don’t warrant such urgency. A couple of major health plans in Miami send vans around to collect Medicare members who need to see their primary care, and employers often provide transportation to workers who need to see …
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Patients may have contracted pneumonia in another healthcare setting, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be walking through your door when symptoms hit them hard and fast. Worse, antibiotic resistance is a real threat in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP); in fact, recent studies have shown that resistance has more than doubled admissions to the ICU and increased complications by 51%. Are you prepared to identify CAP in your urgent care center—and to treat patients early so …
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Vermont is aiming to lower incidence of opioid addiction by putting new restrictions on prescribers. For starters, the state health department has recommended limiting the number of opioid pills a doctor can prescribe; Gov. Peter Shumlin suggested 10 would be appropriate for patients undergoing minor procedures like those that might be performed in the urgent care setting, but the proposal currently on the table frames the amount as a “5-day supply for acute pain.” That …
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An urgent care center in Oxford, MS had to tell some 58,000 patients their personal health and credit card information may have been compromised in a “ransomware” attack—after the operator also agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to the cyber pirates who carried out the act. Concerns started when computer systems started running dramatically slower without explanation. Soon after, the servers were completely taken over by parties beyond the clinic’s walls; control was not restored …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House are working together to foster more responsible use of antibiotics in all healthcare settings by promoting Get Smart About Antibiotics Week, November 14–20. The CDC estimates 2 million Americans become infected with an antibiotic-resistant germ every year, meaning illness that could previously have been treated with a standard antibiotic may land your patients in the hospital (or worse; 23,000 patients die every year from …
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Urgent care operators—and all healthcare providers who receive federal funds (eg, reimbursement under government programs like Medicaid or plans that take part in the Affordable Care Act)—are required by federal law to post nondiscrimination notices in public view by October 17. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights says physicians must take “appropriate initial and continuing steps” to notify patients of certain information/services related to nondiscrimination. HHS has posted …
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Vermont is going to try following Maryland’s lead by testing an all-payer reimbursement system for healthcare providers in 2017. Where Maryland’s long-held policy covers only hospitals, though, Vermont plans to use an accountable care organization (ACO)-type structure to cover all providers, regardless of setting (including urgent care). All-payer systems require all insurers, whether private, Medicare, or Medicaid, to pay similar rates for services. The goal is to increase the quality of care while decreasing the …
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