Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Duty to Report

A few years ago, in a semi-rural town in Arizona, a woman brought her 4-year-old son to a physician assistant named James, who staffed a walk-in clinic. James knew the boy and his family very well. He was essentially their PCP and had treated the little boy in the past. In fact, he watched his grow from a toddler to a rambunctious little bundle of energy. On this particularly visit, the little boy had a …

Simplify Communication to Get Your Message Across

I routinely receive more than 75 e-mails every day, have about 100 cable television stations to choose from, can look up virtually any topic on the Internet, receive scores of mail pieces each week, and have an untold number of voice messages daily. It is not surprising that the average person is receptive to but a fraction of information before them. Thus, there is a dilemma: How do I get my message across in such …

Utilizing Social Media to Drive Visits to Your Website and Urgent Care Center

In Creating a Web Presence to Raise Awareness of Urgent Care (JUCM, July/August 2009), we described how a well-designed website, optimized for retrieval by major search engines, enables highly targeted and localized promotion of an urgent care center. But establishing a web presence is just the beginning; driving “clicks” to the website and “feet” to the center is enhanced by creating “buzz” in online communities. Historically, word-of-mouth – spread in-person or by telephone – has …

Coding for I&D, DTaP, and Procedures Included in the E/M Code

Q. An urgent care that I do billing for has presented a question I would like your input on. A sales rep has stated that urgent care centers are now administering DTaP in urgent care, and, if so, what is the difference between the reimbursement of the Td (90714) and the DTaP (90715)? Lynn Gray, Eastern Hills Medical Billing, Cincinnati, OH A. Patients may use urgent care centers when they have difficulty getting timely appointment …

Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

Heard the adage, “You’ve got to spend money to make money?” Of course you have, and chances are you subscribe to that notion. Well, not so fast. You should spend money on marketing your occupational medicine services, but you can spend it judiciously. Only so much new business can be generated from direct sales; new business must be supplemented with business that is generated through marketing activities that do not rely on face-to-face communication. If …

A Tale of Two Applicants

John Shufeldt, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It was March, and third-year residents all over the country were sending out applications for employment. It was, as Charles Dickens penned, the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the applicant’s spring of hope, most had everything before them’ James and Ashley were no exception. James, from a prestigious East Coast family practice residency, learned during his first …

Developing Data: September, 2009

In early 2008, UCA revamped its annual survey in conjunction with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University with the goal of assuring that the UCA Benchmarking Committee’s efforts produced a scientifically valid report. Here, we present some of the data from this landmark survey, to which 436 urgent care centers responded. In this issue: What clinical staff is working in urgent care centers?

25 Sales and Marketing Pearls

This month’s column provides some easy-to-execute sales and marketing tips that we have found helpful in moving a clinic’s occupational health initiative forward: Sales Skills and Techniques Use euphemisms to convert negative phrases into positives. “You have a problem” should be “You have an opportunity.” “You have a high injury rate” becomes “if we can help lower your injury rate, it would result in lower workers’ comp costs.” Orchestrate clinic visits to make …

Entrepreneurism—Or, How Not to Turn a Lot of Money into a Little

Throughout history, entrepreneurs have faced harsh critics. From Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice through Oliver Stone’s movie Wall Street (“greed is good, greed works.” etc.) entrepreneurial efforts are cast in a dim light. To paraphrase Lifebook founder Job Butcher, though, “no other social system can compete with the free market, entrepreneurial system in terms of productivity, raising living standards, and creating prosperity … Yet, despite its overwhelming contributions, some elements of society still associate profit-making …