Heather Real With today’s urgent care operators challenged with increasing expenses and stagnant reimbursements, many thoughtful entrepreneurs turn to ancillary services to drive more revenue into their business. These offerings are numerous and varying in nature. When determining if and what to add to an urgent care business, you’ll need to ask some crucial questions: As the competition for patient loyalty heats up, many operators are looking for ways to stand out. Some ways of …
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Urgent Care Growth Is Poised to Continue in 2023
Urgent message: Urgent care operators of all sizes are poised for continued growth in 2023. In this post-COVID environment, look to shifting de novo ownership trends, a slowing of health system activity, and independent entrepreneurs regaining their courage as the driving factors. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc The COVID-19 pandemic is no longer the primary driver of decision-making for urgent care operators. While its impact over the past few years cannot be understated, other factors …
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Healthcare Visits by Victims of Human Trafficking Are Limited, but Often Include Urgent Care
As noted in this month’s cover article (Human Trafficking in the Urgent Care Setting: Recognizing and Referring Vulnerable Patients), isolation is one of many tools perpetrators use to control victims of human trafficking. Certainly this includes limiting access to healthcare. Not surprisingly, when care is necessary it’s not likely to be sought in a primary care office. Rather, busy acute care sites that offer walk-in access and relative anonymity tend to be preferred—with urgent care …
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Tips for Payer Reviews
Monte Sandler Insurance plans are scrutinizing claims more than ever before. Common questions from our clients are: What does this mean? What should I do? Should I be worried? Generally, there are three types of payer reviews: prepayment, postpayment, and probe. The first step is to figure out what type of review it is. What you do and how you handle the review is dependent on that information. Should you be concerned? Always. Payer reviews …
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The ‘Triage’ Misnomer in Urgent Care
Urgent message: While the term “triage” refers to one distinct step in emergency department throughput, in urgent care the concept encompasses a series of activities that span queuing, registering, intake, and the physical exam. Given the clinical and legal implications of the term, including who legally can triage, the term should be avoided in most urgent care settings. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc According to modern dictionaries, triage refers to the “assignment of degrees of …
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It’s About Time: Repeat Vitals and Long Waits
Guy Melrose, MB, ChB It was with great interest that I read Dr. Joshua Russell’s opinions on the value of repeating vital signs in the urgent care setting in the November 2022 issue of JUCM.1 Having stated that this does not seem to be common practice amongst his peers, he went on to highlight a couple of very reasonable scenarios in which he recommended repeating vital recordings. Importantly, he alluded to the often-underappreciated phenomenon of …
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COVID-19 Has Had a Strong Impact on Pediatric Presentations—Well Beyond the Virus Itself
The effects of SARS-CoV-2 itself on various populations in the United States and internationally have been well-documented. Likewise, an ever-growing number of studies have measured the effects of the pandemic on healthcare, the workforce, children’s education…and on and on. One fact that has been largely overlooked: While social distancing and mask mandates helped reduce spread of COVID-19, with the unintended benefit of reducing the number of cases of other infectious diseases, they did nothing …
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2023 Trends for Urgent Care
Urgent Message: Five trends will drive urgent care strategy in 2023, including its continued response to COVID-19, building bridges with the pediatric community, integration of urgent and primary care, integration of specialist services, and increased operational efficiency in response to staffing challenges. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Consulting and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. As we embark upon 2023, year of the “rabbit” in the …
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Yes, You Can Remove Corneal Foreign Bodies and Rust Rings in Urgent Care
John J. Koehler MD, ABPM(OM) I trained in Emergency Medicine in the 1980s and learned to use a slit lamp as an intern; it’s a skill that continues to serve me to this day. We had “opti-spuds” to remove foreign bodies and “opti-burrs” to debride rust rings. This was considered a core skill in my training. This is why, when I started Physicians Immediate Care in 1987, I bought a slit lamp as well as …
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Evolution of the Urgent Care Staffing Model During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected urgent care practices deeply, beyond what you already know firsthand. In addition to fluctuations in patient visits, efforts to keep staff safe, and reorganizing locations to meet whatever need was greatest at a given moment, the “typical” urgent care staffing model evolved at an accelerated pace between 2019 and today. The proportion of centers in which physician assistants and nurse practitioners treat patients with only remote …
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