Practice

Just last week we told you the federal government is allowing COVID-19 emergency declarations to expire without renewal for the first time since they were enacted to help protect the public and healthcare professionals from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The first two—the national emergency declaration and the public health emergency—are set to expire on May 11. Now comes word that states are starting to rescind rules imposed during the pandemic. As reported by Becker’s …

As JUCM News readers know, research has shown that healthcare provider burnout increased significantly over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. New research published by Medscape, which also took part in the project, took a slightly alternate approach to the issue by asking 9,100 providers in 29 specialties not only about burnout, but also to assess their degree of happiness. While urgent care was not one of those specialties, it’s noteworthy that the specialties most …

It’s likely you’ve noticed seeing more patients with complaints related to their mental health and emotional wellbeing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. What may be more surprising, if you hadn’t noticed, is that the trend began well before 2020. New research published by Health Affairs shows that between 2006 and 2018 the percentage of visits to primary care related to mental health concerns increased from 11% to 16%. The authors attributed the increase …

Urgent care providers and operators are probably too aware of how common burnout is among healthcare professionals, especially since the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s true, of course, and it is a serious, ongoing concern. However, an article just published by Time magazine points out that patients may also be experiencing their own variety of burnout associated with healthcare. One factor the piece notes—having to wait weeks to see a provider when the patient …

Much of the U.S. is getting hammered with winter storms as of this writing, forcing some urgent care operators to decide whether it’s worth it (and safe) to conduct business as usual, close early, or not even open up for the day. Prevea Health in Wisconsin, for one, got ahead of the game by announcing in local media and its own platforms that they’d be closing all locations, including urgent care centers, from Wednesday afternoon …

New data from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker show that healthcare facilities, in general, are filing for higher-complexity care than in years past—but that urgent care providers buck the trend by filing such claims at a lower rate than their counterparts in the emergency room and traditional physician practices. Looking at claims for outpatient visits between 2004 and 2021 from the Merative MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database for nonelderly people, researchers determined that providers …

It’s common (and understandable) for urgent care operators and providers to feel undercompensated by payers for the services they provide. The quality of care is excellent, typically, and the cost savings passed along to insurers every time a patient can avoid going to the emergency room is almost incalculable. And yet, those insurers impose policies that make it very difficult for reimbursements to match the presumed value of urgent care. Workplace efficiencies can only go …

Trinity Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI had to shut its emergency room down due to a bomb threat one evening last week. It was just the latest in a series of threatened or actual violence at healthcare facilities in the United States. Last June, a former surgical patient went on a shooting spree at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, OK, killing four people and injuring several others before committing suicide. Then in …

Of the many answers to the question What sets urgent care centers apart from retail clinics?, the ability to offer x-rays on site is high on the list. Some might call it one of urgent care’s distinguishing characteristics. It seems like the ability to continue doing so gets more challenging by the day, though. As JUCM readers know, one concern is a shortage of qualified radiologic technologists. And with the rapid growth of the industry, …

Staffing shortages, provider burnout, and the general public’s full return to postpandemic normalcy are conspiring to create long waits in hospital emergency rooms—so long, in fact, that hospital administrators and local government officials are pleading with patients to visit urgent care and other walk-in or virtual healthcare providers when prudent. Statistically, patients heading to EDs in Maryland have it worst, as they’ll wait an average of 228 minutes to be seen as reported by The …