Practice Management
Urgent message: When holding a time slot that could go to another paying customer, it’s common for service businesses to charge no-show or cancellation fees. With many urgent care centers moving to online registration and queuing systems, could this be a solution for maximizing throughput in urgent care as well? Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is President of Experity Networks and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Please provide at …
Read MoreUrgent care has historically been viewed as a setting where patients could present with anything short of life- or limb-threatening complaints (though even those parameters have been stretched in dire situations.) And that identity has served the industry well, as evidenced by nearly constant growth over several decades. As time wore on, though, it became evident that there are business opportunities to be had by addressing niches with special needs. Occupational medicine is a prime …
Read MoreDecember brought us some last-minute coding changes. In some cases, this caused a small claim delay as clearinghouses and payers scrambled to update their systems. New ICD-10 Codes for COVID-19 Effective January 1, 2021, there are new ICD-10 codes for reporting COVID-19 related diagnoses. These codes replace the existing codes we are using that are not as specific. There are two other new codes: 81 (Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS)); and 89 (Other specified systemic involvement …
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Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. This quotation, commonly attributed to Dr. W. Edwards Deming,1 has never been more relevant for urgent care (UC) than right now. Considered the original guru of quality improvement, Dr. Deming was explaining why systems must be redesigned if the desired outcomes are not being achieved. The existing “system” for measuring clinical quality in UC needs an overhaul. It is fragmented and underdeveloped, and lacks …
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Urgent message: While an urgent care center is responsible for the collection and safeguarding of clinical specimens, it’s generally not liable for the activities of a third-party lab that it sends a specimen to. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Experity Urgent care facilities regularly provide bloodwork and laboratory testing for their patients. These services may include allergy screening, diabetes testing, anemia screening, immunity testing, thyroid screening and monitoring, and …
Read MoreJUCM has devoted a lot more space to covering aspects of providing urgent care for children. In this very issue there’s a new original research article on how long the SARS-CoV-2 virus lasts in children who may or may not be symptomatic (see page XX). And if you look at our Masthead, you’ll notice we’ve even engaged a pediatric urgent care provider to provide guidance and to help us ensure we’re conveying the right information …
Read MoreIt’s 2021, and the new E/M guidelines for office visit codes are here. Hopefully, providers will feel some relief in the amount they need to document and can spend more time treating their patients. This month I’ll answer some of the questions I’ve received. Q. Do all three elements of medical decision-making (MDM) need to be at the same level for the code selected? A. No. Only the two highest elements need to be met …
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Urgent message: As consumers become more dependent on their internet-connected smartphones for health information, urgent care centers must adapt their marketing content to mobile devices and include greater use of voice-enabled search and GPS-enabled marketing tactics. When personalized technology started to become widespread in the late 90s and early 2000s, it changed the way companies did business. They were forced to adapt to new marketing tactics and develop creative ways to fend off competitors. Customers …
Read MoreWhen the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their running count of data related to COVID-19 on December 7, a couple of subtle messages highly relevant to the urgent care provider stood out. Yes, the headlines went to the dramatic spike in cases, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions. However, the data also reveal something that emerged in Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in Preoperative Patients Tested in an Urgent Care Setting, the original research articles featured on …
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It’s a conversation I’ve had endless times. One that I’ve honed and refined stepwise over time, and one that my patients often tell me they hadn’t considered before: the appropriate use and overuse of antibiotics. And right now, with patients hyper-focused on healthy immune systems, medical providers are uniquely positioned to build antibiotic stewardship into our diagnostic process and significantly increase resistance awareness nationwide. Process and Priorities A year ago, my approach to sharing a …
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