Practice Management
The United States is a transient society, with approximately 12% of Americans changing residences each year. The rates are much higher for those living in apartments (24%) vs owner-occupied homes (5%) and for young people under age 34 (34%) than those more established in their homes, families, and careers. Data also indicate a continued out-migration from dense urban areas to the suburbs and exurbs and from the “rust belt” to the “sunbelt.” When a family …
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If patients walk out the door because the wait in your clinic is too long, that doesn’t have to signal lost business. You can still capture the revenue that would have been generated on the spot and maintain good customer service by encouraging them to visit another of your company’s locations. Take Intermountain Healthcare (IHC), which operates 31 InstaCare/KidsCare centers across Utah. Within the Salt Lake Valley, these urgent care locations are typically no more …
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If there’s truth to the cliché that “first impressions are everything,” then as a retail and service business, urgent care should put its best foot forward whenever patients enter the center, providing a greeting not dissimilar to what shoppers expect when entering a retail store. In recent weeks I’ve visited three urgent care centers and upon crossing the entry threshold, experienced three completely different “welcomes.” In the first center, I was greeted by multiple signs pointing …
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URGENT MESSAGE: Public attitudes on the use of marijuana have undergone a sea change over the last two decades, with laws regarding the use of marijuana for medical purposes and in limited cases the recreational use of the drug becoming more liberal. Legalized cannibis presents unique challenges that could impact urgent care and occupational medicine providers when it comes to delivery of patient care and human resources considerations. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice …
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Patients have their pick of more urgent care centers than ever before. Unfortunately, they tend to not differentiate one urgent care brand from the next. Throw in all the retail clinics and freestanding EDs, and it’s easy to see why making your location stand out among the rest is such a challenge. Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc will look more deeply into the issue and propose solutions to help you separate yourself from the herd during …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Urgent care requires dedicated, engaged, and focused frontline staff members to deliver the types of patient experiences that spur repeat visits and positive word of mouth. Yet a Gallup poll conducted in 2014 showed that a paltry 32% of U.S. workers are truly engaged in their jobs.1 That means that more than two-thirds of America’s workforce is simply going through the motions—which engagement experts have clearly demonstrated has a …
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URGENT MESSAGE: Zoom+, which operates 28 walk-in clinics in the Pacific Northwest, has long been a technological innovator, launching web registration, scheduling, and telemedicine in its markets. In the past year, ZoomCare has evolved further to create Zoom+, integrating urgent care with insurance, primary care, wellness, specialists, and ancillary services. As Zoom+ refocuses the future of urgent care around the needs of its community, there is much that other urgent care operators can learn in …
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URGENT MESSAGE: American consumers have been conditioned to expect high levels of customer service in exchange for their hard-earned money, so when urgent care fails to deliver on patient expectations, the result can be devastating to a center’s reputation. Fortunately, negative experiences can be turned around by practical strategies for dealing with angry patients. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, a member of the Board …
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URGENT MESSAGE: As urgent care developers seek prime real estate for their medical centers, bank branches that have been vacated due to mergers may provide a high-traffic, high-visibility solution, although there are practical challenges with converting a former bank branch to an urgent care center. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, a member of the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association of America, …
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URGENT MESSAGE: During the gold rush of the mid-1800s, miners and bartenders enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship in which neither could survive the Wild West without the other. In the modern “gold rush” of U.S. healthcare spending, coordinators of population health and service/technology innovators are working together to improve outcomes and lower costs, propelling new business models—including urgent care. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, …
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