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. Over the coming months in Developing Data, JUCM will present some of the findings from this landmark survey, to which 436 urgent care centers responded. In this issue: Of those urgent care centers that responded to questions about how they …
Read MoreEMTALA and Transferring Patients to the Emergency Department
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP I was an emergency medicine resident on the south side of Chicago in the mid-1980s and, truth be known, I sometimes played inappropriate practical jokes on residents at other area trauma centers. One of my favorites was calling over the “patch phone” with a report that a patient whose penis was “Lorena Bobbitted” by a pit bull was en route; the paramedics were bringing in both the patient and …
Read MoreWhat, When, Who, and How to Offer ‘Freebies’
Historically, marketing occupational health services has often meant producing various commodities with your clinic’s name on it: pens, hats, mini-flashlights, refrigerator magnets, note pads, even t-shirts. Cute, perhaps—but these trinkets cost money, took time to distribute, and quickly faded from the recipient’s mind, if not their possession. Should your clinic’s outreach strategy include “freebies?” If so, what should they be, how should they be distributed, and who should receive them?
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The Search for the Urgent Care Center
Urgent message: Efforts to define and accurately count urgent care centers in the U.S.—which may be crucial to the industry’s continued growth—are ongoing, and will require the commitment of trade organizations and individual urgent care owners alike. Robin M. Weinick, PhD, Steffanie J. Bristol, BS, Jessica E. Marder, and Catherine M. DesRoches, DrPH Our quest to provide accurate, scientifically rigorous benchmarking data for urgent care centers began with the decision to conduct a survey. Before …
Read MoreDetermining New vs. Established Patients for E/M Coding
Q.We are in the process of adding urgent care services to our occupational medicine clinic. How do we determine when to use a new or established E/M code for the patients who are seen for urgent care services? A.I continue to receive questions regarding the “when to code new or established patient E&M codes” conundrum, so let’s try to simplify the issue. The official CPT definition of new patient is: A patient who has not …
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Failing to Plan—or Planning To Fail? Designing a Clinic for Success
Urgent message: Making the best use of the space you have is not just a matter of comfort and esthetics; an efficient floor plan contributes to providing proper—and cost-effective—care and services. Patrice Pash, RN, BSN, COHC So you’ve signed the lease or purchased the property and you’re sitting there staring at this huge empty shell, dreaming of the potential finished space. What will it look like? How many exam rooms do you need? What additional …
Read MoreDeveloping Data: December, 2008
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. Over the coming months in Developing Data, JUCM will present some of the findings from this landmark survey, to which 436 urgent care centers responded. In this issue: How much money do physicians who work in urgent care centers make? …
Read MoreCoding Symptoms of Infections, Modifiers for X-rays, and Counseling Family Members
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q.Our doctor saw a patient for a sore throat. The rapid strep screen was positive, so she placed the following diagnoses on the chart: 0: Streptococcal sore throat 61: Fever presenting with conditions classi- fied elsewhere 1: Throat pain 79: Other malaise and fatigue I told her that since we had a specific infection that was the cause of second, third, and fourth diagnoses, we should code the confirmed infection, …
Read MoreThe Herd Mentality and Occupational Health Sales
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines herd as “a group of individuals usually having a common bond” or “a number of animals kept under some type of human control.” So let us think bulls (to some, a fitting metaphor for a piece on sales). For every early adaptor or contrarian, there seem to be 10 other people who prefer to follow the leader. For every buyer of urgent care occupational health services who buys offensively out of …
Read MoreStrategies on Responding to Variable Patient Acuity and Flow
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Over the years, I have worked with a variety of providers who exhibited significantly disparate skill levels in their ability to manage patient flow. Practicing good medicine is a given; some have been amazingly intelligent providers who make House look like a PG1 psychiatry resident from a non-accredited medical school. Their only downside was that they were pathetically slow, or communicated at the level of a mollusk. Effective and …
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