Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

With Billing Decisions in the Provider’s Court, e-Visits Go Up and Messages from Patients Go Down

A study just released by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that when providers are empowered with the decision of whether or not to bill for an e-visit, the number of virtual visits rises while the number of messages exchanged with patients falls. That’s not as counterintuitive as it sounds. The data show the volume of e-visits rose because overall the providers started billing for “visits” that they once gave away for free, …

Vaccine-Hesitant Urgent Care Workers May Need Proper—and Personal—Motivation

Urgent care operators (and all healthcare employers) may struggle at times to ensure their teams meet organizational goals for vaccination compliance. Even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some healthcare workers (HCWs) flat out refused to get vaccinated. Besides putting themselves and those around them at risk, such individuals provided a poor example for patients who may have been on the fence about getting the shot. New research published in the Journal of Occupational …

<strong>Storms Are Shutting Down Urgent Care Centers<strong>—</strong>but It Could Be Worse. Would You Be Prepared?</strong>

Storms Are Shutting Down Urgent Care Centers—but It Could Be Worse. Would You Be Prepared?

Catastrophic winter storms are being blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people across the country this week. They’re also leaving many thousands stranded in airports and even more at home without power or heat. Urgent care centers are not exempt for the effects, either, as they’re among the many healthcare facilities forced to shut their doors or alter their operations due to severe conditions. As reported by Fox 17 West Michigan, Spectrum Health has …

Want to Engender a Loyal Patient Base? Mocking Them on Social Media Is Not the Way to Go

Unless they’ve come in for an annual physical or something similarly mundane, patients are probably not having the best of days if they’re visiting an urgent care center. Certainly medical emergencies and childbirth are high-stress situations. It should go without saying that all parties deserve to be treated with respect as a bare minimum at all times. Apparently it does need to be said, though. As reported by 11 Alive in Atlanta, four nurses at …

Packed Waiting Rooms May Require Creative Solutions

With alarming, simultaneous increases in cases of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus and the future of COVID-19 cases unclear, we can expect heavy patient volumes in urgent care centers over the coming months. While urgent care is known for its efficient way of providing excellent care, systems in place to keep patient flow on point will be put to the test. Some urgent care centers are already altering their norms in response. UnityPoint Health in …

If You’re Vexed by the Shortage of X-Ray Techs, You May Need to Get Creative

Physicians aren’t the only healthcare professionals in short supply across the United States. Urgent care centers have been wrestling with a dearth of x-ray technicians for some time now. Given that the ability to offer x-ray services is a distinguishing characteristic that sets urgent care apart from some other walk-in settings, this is a fairly significant problem. Some urgent care centers have had to come up with innovative solutions in order to keep patients satisfied. …

Workplace Violence Is So Bad CMS Had to Remind Hospitals They Need to Protect Patients and Staff

JUCM News has reported on individual incidents of assaults on healthcare workers and patients periodically. Unfortunately, such events happen so often that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services felt it necessary to issue a memorandum reminding hospital employers that they’re obligated to have measures in place to protect staff and patients from on-site violence. The background data may be surprising. Citing a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CMS noted that 73% of …

When Communicating with Patients, Tone Matters—and the Wrong One Can Cost You

Whether it’s declining to prescribe an antibiotic you know isn’t necessary to a patient who insists that it is or working through a billing issue, conflicts with patients are going to arise in your urgent care center. And when they do, how the matter is handled can make the difference between having a respectful disagreement and getting blasted online (or worse). An extreme example is playing out across mainstream and social media right now, as …

A ‘Doctor’ by Any Other Name…Could Be Cause for Sanction

Nurses who go to the necessary lengths to earn their Doctor of Nursing Practice degree deserve to be addressed as “Dr.” in correspondence and when interacting with colleagues and patients. Apparently there’s a thin line between that and self-reference, however. As reported in a post on Nurse.org, a nurse practitioner who did earn her DNP has been fined $19,000 by the County of San Louis Obispo (California) District Attorney’s Office for calling herself “Dr. Sarah” …

Showing That You ‘Understand’ Individual Patients Could Go a Long Way Toward Ensuring Their Satisfaction

Everybody wants to be recognized and understood—whatever that means in a given scenario. When that scenario is a patient in need of care, the feeling that their healthcare provider understands them as an individual goes a long way—a very long way—toward how they experience their care. In fact, according to a report from NRC Health, patients who felt like they were treated “as a unique person” during a hospital experience were 295% more likely to …

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