Practice

The COVID-19 era has had a profound, deleterious effect on healthcare providers’ level of happiness in their work and in life, according to Medscape’s 2023 Physician Lifestyle and Happiness Report. Prepandemic, they were a pretty happy bunch, with 84% saying they were “somewhat” or “very” happy in their lives outside of work. Now, though, according to the report, only 58% can say that. There was a similar drop relating to work, specifically, too. Previously, 75% …

Conversations with patients go on all day—every day of every week of every year. It’s hard to name anything more ordinary in an urgent care center. It’s important to remember this is not the case for the patient, however. Especially in urgent care, it’s likely that if a patient came in to see you their day is anything but ordinary. Many may see any provider at all once a year, at most. So, those interactions …

Personal tastes and the hot colors of the moment are the last things you should be relying on when choosing the color of scrubs, if new data published by JAMA Surgery are any indication. Researchers at the University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill showed patients photos of male and female clinicians wearing black, light blue, green, and navy blue scrubs to find out if a particular color was associated with surgeons in …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …