Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Yes, You Can Market Different Types of Care Under One Umbrella—with the Right Approach

Comarketing different aspects of your urgent care operation may not only be possible, but downright advisable according to an article published recently by Physicians Practice. Most obviously, devising (or more to the point, paying an agency to devise) separate strategies for your urgent care and primary care services, for example, is obviously more costly. However, the article also points out that such an approach disregards the fact that patient needs can be complex and while …

That Payer Provider Directories Problem We Told You About? It’s Worse Than You Know

Just a couple of weeks ago, we relayed that an investigation showed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois failed to audit at least 25% of provider directories to ensure they were current and that their website maintained current provider information. The upshot was that your urgent care center might not show up when BCBS members searched for covered practices to visit. Now the Journal of the American Medical Association has published a study revealing that …

Offer Telehealth Services in Your Urgent Care Operation? Now You’re Competing with Google

Google apparently thinks it’s time to ratchet up its efforts to get a piece of the U.S. healthcare marketplace, as it just entered into an agreement with virtual care vendor Pager. According to the announcement, Pager will serve as an integrated service provider and technology partner, and support Google Cloud’s Healthcare application programming interface (API), dialog flow, and data platform. In short, the partnership is intended to enhance Google Cloud’s healthcare application interface through Pager’s …

Recognize the Weight Your Words Carry; Patients Trust You More Than They Do the CDC

It’s unlikely a patient would think to tell you this directly, but new research published by the journal Health Affairs shows that in the COVID-19 era physicians and nurses are more trusted for health information than federal, state, and local health agencies. While 37% of 4,208 participants in a telephone survey said they trust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide solid information, 54% said they trust physicians “a great deal” while 48% …

A New COVID Variant Is Increasing Concern Across the Globe—Including in the U.S.

It’s more of an issue internationally right now, but 18 U.S. states have reported cases of the emerging omicron variant XBB.1.16. While XBB.1.5 is still the most prevalent variant here, the World Health Organization reports that XBB.1.16 has been reported in 22 countries and has become the dominant variant in some of those, already increasing hospitalizations and deaths. XBB variants 1.9.1, XBB, and XBB.1.5.1 are also on the rise domestically, raising concerns that severe cases …

List of Top Black Healthcare Leaders Reflects Well on Urgent Care Diversity

Physicians and executives with close ties to urgent care are prominent among Becker’s Hospital Review’s list of Black Healthcare Leaders to Know for 2023. As Becker’s reasons, diversity among providers and healthcare organization leadership “leads to more informed, personalized care and improved outcomes” while those chosen to be on the list have demonstrated an ability to foster “positive patient experiences, paving the way for the next generation of leaders, and promoting health equity.” Among them …

Urgent Care Boomed at the Expense of Telehealth and the ED from 2020 to 2021

You might assume that utilization of telehealth continued what had been steady growth in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. You’d be mistaken, however. In fact, telehealth claim lines actually plummeted by 76% from 2020 to 2021, according to the FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index 2023 report. At the same time, it goes on to say, urgent care claim lines jumped 14% while ambulatory surgical centers dropped 7% and emergency room …

Be Aware: Shorter Visits by Certain Patients Seem to Increase Inappropriate Prescriptions

Efficient time management is one of the signature attributes—and biggest draws—of an urgent care visit. A new study published by JAMA Health Forum could be viewed as a caveat for urgent care providers, however, as it suggests that shorter visits to primary care physicians seem to result in more poor prescribing decisions than longer visits do—at least for certain categories of medications and among patients from certain demographic groups. The cross-sectional study, which reflects the …

A Consolidation of Signs of Symptoms of Pediatric Pneumonia

Urgent message: While pneumonia in general continues to be a common diagnosis in children in the United States, relatively few studies have sought to determine the signs and symptoms that help to predict occult bacterial pneumonia. Awareness of associated signs and symptoms may assist the urgent care provider in proceeding more quickly to a correct diagnosis. Alyssa Whited, PA-C and Christina Gardner, PA-C CASE PRESENTATION A 5-year-old male with no significant past medical history presented …

Assure, Don’t Assume, You’re on All the Provider Directories You Should Be

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois’s failure to ensure its online provider directories are current should be a wake-up call for urgent care operators everywhere. As reported by Becker’s Hospital Report, the company was just fined $605,000 for violating state network transparency laws; an audit showed the company failed to audit at least 25% of provider directories to ensure they were current and that their website maintained current provider information. The implication for urgent care …