Practice Management
Credentialing is a process used to evaluate the qualifications and practice history of a doctor, including a review of completed education, training, residency, and licenses. It also includes any certifications issued by a board in the doctor’s area of specialty. Many urgent care centers assume their providers are fully credentialed; however, it is advisable to do your due diligence when engaging a new physician to ensure he or she has the necessary credentials. Even if …
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In urgent care, you get one shot to make the right diagnosis for patients you may have never seen before. If you want to make sure you see them again (ie, they become loyal customers), you have to get it right the first time. Michael Loeb, MD, will cover differentiating factors for making the right diagnosis when presented with common complaints, as well as appropriate management for sinusitis, bronchitis, dysuria, urethritis, and more in 5 …
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota sees a bright future for Livio Health Group, a new company that offers in-home urgent care and primary care services—so much so that it has invested an undisclosed amount to help the St. Paul, MN company increase its market presence. Livio sends clinicians to homes and other facilities to treat injuries and acute illness but also to help patients manage chronic conditions and offer diagnostic testing and preventative …
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The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is launching a new program that aims to simplify reporting of work-related illness and injury, as well as offer more protection for whistleblowers. Most relevant to urgent care operators who provide occupational health services, OSHA will require all work-related injuries and illness to be reported through a new database as of January 1, 2017. The same level of information will still have to be filed annually, but the …
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“Appearances matter” is a commonly heard phrase, but sometimes appearances can either encourage new patients to come in or literally stop patients at the door. It’s not enough that you’re open 12 hours per day. The equally important question is, does your urgent care center look open? I’ve frequently seen urgent care centers which—during operating hours—have their exterior signage turned off, no “open” sign displayed, and their window blinds closed, giving the appearance of being …
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Local media, elected municipal officials, and residents who know a good—and necessary—thing when they see one united in welcoming a new urgent care to an underserved corner of western Kansas. St. Catherine Hospital first recognized the need for a new community health resource to offset the pressure building in its own overcrowded emergency room, where patients complained about having to wait hours—or months, in extreme cases—just to be seen by a physician. Garden City, now …
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Some national provider organizations have, at times, been downright vehement in opposing the growth of urgent care. The common “complaint” seems to be that allowing patients to receive care without an appointment threatens the well-founded idea of the medical home. On the other hand—as industry insiders and patients know—urgent care provides necessary care at the time it’s needed most. If you want to build up relationships with local providers instead of defensively fending off misperceptions, …
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Urgent care centers see their share of patients seeking relief from yeast infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning healthcare facilities around the country of a multidrug-resistant type of yeast that has caused deadly hospital infections across the globe. Most commonly, Candida auris has caused healthcare-associated invasive infections such as bloodstream infections, wound infections, and otitis. Officials started taking note of international reports of C auris infections when it became clear …
Read MoreA new payment system being considered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will have to make more accommodations for smaller practices—such as many urgent care centers—if there’s any hope of it succeeding, according to comments the Urgent Care Association (UCA) submitted to CMS. In its current form, the Merit-Based Incentive Payments System (MIPS) would require some clinicians to get an exemption from MIPS by participating in an Advanced Alternative Payment Model or …
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Many urgent care centers are well prepared to administer travel-related vaccines for tourists bound for the Olympics or ready to set sail on a cruise. What about closer to home, though? With school out and vacationing in, would the first aid center at the water park and the manager of that motel off the interstate think of your urgent care center when they need to refer a guest who needs immediate care? You should 1) …
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