Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Secure Your Practice Against Cyberattacks: Video Post #2

Earlier this week, we brought you new data concerning ransomware cyberattacks on small businesses—and how to avoid falling prey to one. In the second segment of our three-part series, Randall Dennis, cybersecurity expert and COO of Guidance Partners, explains the various categories of cyberattacks and what steps you can take to thwart efforts to steal and exploit sensitive business and patient information. Dennis says cyberattacks on small and medium-sized businesses are on the rise, with over …

Remote Check-in May Take the ‘Wait’ Out of the Urgent Care Waiting Room

Even urgent care centers, known for their ability to get patients in and out far more efficiently than other settings, can seem too slow for some patients on a given day. New technologies are improving systems all the time, though, making it possible for patients to cut the time of an urgent care visit even further. For one, PhysicianOne Urgent Care offers patients the chance to view the current wait time at any of its …

Time for Urgent Care to Embrace Telemedicine

Being an industry populated by medical professionals who also happen to be forward-thinking business visionaries, urgent care is likely to see accelerated growth in telemedicine in 2017 and beyond. Conversely, operators who don’t see the benefit run the risk of getting left in the dust, as even large healthcare businesses and networks—typically, slower to adopt new practices than entrepreneurial types—are forging ahead in offering virtual visits. Occupational medicine giant Concentra just announced it is adding …

Is Your Mouse Keeping You from Spending More Time with Patients?

Suneel Dhand, MD has seen the future—and it does not include small desktop gizmos that you have to scroll, click or otherwise manipulate at the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Writing for the blog KevinMD, Dhand says the increasing popularity of devices with touchscreens (ie, smartphones and tablets), and even touch pads on laptop computers, could spell the demise of the traditional mouse. Why does a physician care? Here’s why: Dhand contends that the …

Guard Against ‘Ransomware’ Attacks by Checking Your Security Systems

An urgent care center in Oxford, MS had to tell some 58,000 patients their personal health and credit card information may have been compromised in a “ransomware” attack—after the operator also agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to the cyber pirates who carried out the act. Concerns started when computer systems started running dramatically slower without explanation. Soon after, the servers were completely taken over by parties beyond the clinic’s walls; control was not restored …

‘House Call App’ Not Apt to Disrupt Urgent Care

While a big hit in France, an app designed to facilitate home visits by a clinician is unlikely to gain traction in the U.S. marketplace. It’s the latest incarnation of trying to provide Uber-like services in healthcare. This model is derived from SOS Médecins, which founder Gaspard de Dreuzy brought across the Atlantic in 2013. He and Uber founder Oscar Salazar dubbed their brainchild Pager, an Uber for home healthcare. Available on the App Store, …

Cost Benefit Becoming Key for Employers Eying Telemedicine

Previous analysis of how viable telemedicine could become has focused on providing access for residents of underserved rural areas and cutting down on lost productivity time for employees. Now, with state legislatures around the country approving laws that demand parity for telemedicine, employers and payers are looking more closely at the economics of offering coverage for remote physician encounters. IHS Technology projects that annual spending on telehealth will rise to $2.2 billion in 2018, up …

Who Hates EHRs? Survey Says…Not Patients!

Doctors who tire of typing into screens all day have often assumed that patients share their pain. While it may be true that patients usually do feel ill when they’re around an EHR—they’ve come to the urgent care center for a reason, after all—it probably isn’t the software that’s making them feel that way. A study of patients at a University of Chicago ambulatory clinic revealed positive impressions of physicians’ computer use; as a group, …

MedStar Ransomware Attack a Reminder: Guard Against System Outages

MedStar Health management thought the company was as prepared as it could be for computer system shutdowns. That bubble was burst when MedStar became the victim of a ransomware attack earlier this year, rendering its systems unusable for a time. The company had a corporate emergency plan, as well as a plan for each of its 10 hospitals and 250 outpatient clinics, but nothing that prepared it to handle all systems going down at once. …

Telemedicine Dips a Toe in the Deep End of the Urgent Care Pool

FastMed Urgent Care has become the biggest urgent care provider in the country to offer patients telemedicine services. The company has partnered with TouchCare to start taking mobile video appointments in North Carolina, via smartphone or tablet. If all goes well there, FastMed plans to offer similar service in Arizona and Texas later this year. The company says it has a distinct advantage over virtual-only services because patients can start with a remote visit but …