Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

The Case for a Generative AI Acceptable Use Policy in Urgent Care

Urgent Message: Banning generative artificial intelligence can create a culture of secretive use that presents potential risks for legal liability, clinical harm, and degradation of reputation. Key Words: Generative Artificial Intelligence; Protected Health Information; HIPAA; Clinical Decision-Making Across urgent care centers, many clinicians are experimenting with generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The trend is measurable, not anecdotal. The American Medical Association reports that 2 in 3 physicians used AI in 2024—a stunning rise from 38% …

What Does ‘Standard of Care’ Mean from a Legal Compliance Perspective?

Urgent Message: Urgent care centers are not required to deliver the “best possible care” but rather an “acceptable” level of care, which is legally defined as the “standard of care.” Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Key Words: Standard of Care, Medical Malpractice, Medical Negligence, Legal Compliance, Disciplinary Action Medical malpractice occurs when a physician’s actions, or failure to act, during patient care don’t meet accepted medical standards and cause harm to the patient. To be …

Mastering Revenue Cycle Management

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC Revenue cycle management (RCM) may not be the most glamorous part of urgent care, but it is one of the most critical. A clinic can provide excellent patient care, yet still struggle to keep its doors open if its billing processes falter. Too often, urgent care leaders rely on assumptions, outdated practices, or incomplete data that lead to financial surprises and lost revenue. Running an effective Revenue Cycle …

The Scale of Orthopedic Urgent Care

As of August 12, 2025, there are 726 orthopedic urgent care (OUC) rooftops in the United States, according to National Urgent Care Realty and Urgent Care Consultants. Based on centers added since January 1, 2025, the estimated annual rooftop growth for 2025 is 10.9%. The charts highlight the market’s structure: Most sites operate without hospital affiliation, and OUC is largely a scaled, multisite business rather than single-location clinics. Only 9% of OUC rooftops are single …

One Voice, One Vision

In last month’s column, I wrote about the importance of proving Urgent Care’s value—not just in terms of access and convenience, but also in demonstrating the quality outcomes and systemwide impact that make our care essential to patients, payers, employers, and policymakers alike. Over the past several weeks, I’ve had the privilege of hearing from many of you who share this same commitment and are eager to help strengthen Urgent Care’s position in the healthcare …

What is an Urgent Care Operator’s Liability Concerning Trash Disposal?

Urgent Message: Medical and non-medical waste produced by urgent care centers must be handled in accordance with federal, state, and local regulations. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that garbage is public property once it is set on the curb.1 The Supreme Court opined that “[i]t is common knowledge that plastic garbage bags left on or at the side of a public street are readily accessible to animals, children, scavengers, snoops, and other members …

Urgent Care Clinician Procedural Benchmarking Survey Results

Patrick O’Malley, MD; Albert Botchway, PhD; Laurel Stoimenoff, PT (ret.); and Lindsey E. Fish, MD, on behalf of the College of Urgent Care Medicine Over the past 15 years, there have been significant changes in urgent care (UC) medicine. First and foremost, this is a rapidly expanding field of medicine as urgent care centers now provide more than 200 million visits a year performed in more than 14,000 locations. Additionally, urgent care centers have transitioned …

My AI Journey and Practical Lessons You Can Use Now

Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc My artificial intelligence (AI) awakening wasn’t a lightning bolt but a slow current—a series of small jolts. I kept encountering people who seemingly talked about AI all the time—fluent in the lingo and referred to by others as “AI gurus.” From their conversations, it was clear they were putting AI into real operations—analyzing data, streamlining tasks, even building custom AI tools and agents. But it was still as if they …

It’s Time to Tell Our Story

Over the last few months, I’ve had the privilege of spending time with Lou Ellen Horwitz, my predecessor and now past CEO of the Urgent Care Association (UCA), as part of my onboarding. She’s been generous with her knowledge and perspective, helping me understand the many administrative details that keep UCA and our affiliates running smoothly. That investment of time has been invaluable, and I’m grateful for her continued support during this transition. At the …

ICD-10 Changes Impacting Urgent Care in 2025

Tricia Krueger, CPC, is RCM Coding Supervisor for Experity. ICD-10 has been ever changing since it was first adopted 10 years ago. Each year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revise, add, and delete diagnoses to better suit the conditions, including the conditions that present in urgent care centers. These changes reflect advances in clinical understanding and the need for more precise documentation in fast-paced care settings. While ICD-10 changes can happen semi-annually, …

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