Practice

Physician assistants and nurse practitioners, known collectively as advanced practice providers (APPs), are doing a great job administering care to patients in urgent care centers and other settings all over the country. With the worsening physician shortage, their contributions are going to become more and more essential as time goes on. So, it’s more important than ever to ensure that all the clinicians in your urgent care operation are working in concert with each other. …

Patient satisfaction scores have become something of a currency in the healthcare marketplace. That’s probably truest in urgent care, where patients are making snap decisions on where to go in the next 5 minutes—often guided by Yelp, Google, and even travel sites like Travelocity. It’s so common that fear of bad reviews can creep into your mind and start affecting how you practice. The mainstream media is picking up on that concern, though the coverage …

Legitimate, well-researched news stories have made it clear that sexual harassment, and sometimes even sexual assault, have been pervasive in American workplaces. Healthcare, including urgent care, is not immune. The need to take action to stop it, or at least levy serious consequences on those who commit abuses, is beyond debate. Unfortunately, however, even righteous causes sometimes have unintended consequences. An article just published in the Harvard Business Review reports a growing backlash against #MeToo, …

Like every generation, Millennials (defined as Americans born between 1981 and 1996) are inclined to share certain preferences and characteristics that might seem out-of-step with other generations. The thing is, Millennials will become the largest demographic segment of the U.S. population this year, according to Pew Research. So, at this point, consider they might not be the ones who are “out of step” if you view those preferences as counter to the way you do …

If you needed any more proof that we as a society—including the urgent care industry—are firmly entrenched in the internet age, here it is: A prestigious academic health system has appointed its first chief medical social media officer. As noted in an article recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Harvard-trained gastroenterologist Austin Chiang, MD is now tasked with helping Jefferson Health/Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia stay on point with a …

As summer winds down, local chambers of commerce are trying to squeeze in end-of-season festivals dedicated to every type of food, music, and ethnic group imaginable. It’s prime time for major national events like the just-concluded Sturgis (SD) Motorcycle Rally, too. In the latter case, area healthcare facilities have learned they need extra staff on hand to treat bikers and onlookers who flood the town ever year; last year, local healthcare facilities saw 610 rally-related …

As predictions of high winds and flooding made headlines over the weekend, Louisiana urgent care centers who expected to see the brunt of the storm did their best to spread the word that they’d be closing up shop until the most dangerous conditions subsided. Local media carried reports of what healthcare facilities in general would be accessible, and operations such as Lafayette General Health got the word out through social media, as well, including updates …

It may seem deceptively simple, but the fact is that millennials (generally, Americans born between 1981 and 1996) tend to approach their business dealings—which includes healthcare choices, in their view—from a tech-savvy perspective because they’re the first generation to grow up with easy access to computers, and the internet specifically. That goes down to how they make decisions on which healthcare settings to visit when they or their families (yes, millennials are even having children) …

The latest version of the International Classification of Diseases from the World Health Organization has a startling new entry: for the first time, it officially classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon. Previous editions have referred to burnout as a “state of vital exhaustion” but stopped short of linking it to the workplace. Now the WHO describes burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” including the …

Graduations and moving-up ceremonies mean it’s time for students to kick back and start enjoying the summer—and that urgent care centers need to start offering fall sports physicals already. Some states say student-athletes can have physicals for the following school year’s fall sports season in the previous spring. Michigan, for one, permits physicals for fall sports to take place as early as April 15 of the preceding school year. With families often being gone for …