Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

The Effect of Computer Use in the Exam Room on Patient Satisfaction in Urgent Care

Urgent Message: The use of a computer in the urgent care examination room does not significantly impact patient satisfaction. As such, clinicians can use medical technologies in the exam room while maintaining confidence in the clinician-patient relationship. Justin Bowles, MD; Mitchell Lopes, MS4; Chaya Pflugeisen, MSc, MEd Keywords: electronic health records; physician-patient relations; patient satisfaction; ambulatory care facilities; communication; surveys and questionnaires Abstract Objectives: Primary care literature has shown that the use of technology in …

At Odds: Do Clinical Practice Metrics Incentivize Bad Medicine?

Justin R. Murphy, MMSc, PA-C We live in a world that revolves around data. If you have been in the medical field for a decade or longer, you have observed the trend toward increasingly data-driven medical practice. If you have been practicing more recently, you have lived it. Metrics continually shape our practice patterns and influence our care, and their utilization will only increase. Currently, analytics and artificial intelligence tools cannot directly process human cognition …

The Impact of Parental Pressure on Providers Practicing in Pediatric Urgent Care

Urgent Message: Pediatric urgent care providers commonly experience pressure to satisfy parental expectations, which may alter clinical decision making, increase stress levels, and/or impart barriers to administering quality care. Keywords: parental pressure; antibiotic prescribing; shared decision-making; pediatric urgent care; patient satisfaction; clinical decision-making Daniel Moscato, MS, PA-C; Sara Winter, MS, PA-C Abstract Background: Patient-centered care focuses on strengthening patient participation in their own healthcare. Although advantages to such care exist, intended shared decision making between …

Online Healthcare Reviews Offer an Earful of Feedback

In an analysis of 1 million online Yelp reviews across 138,605 U.S. healthcare providers, researchers identified patterns and words linked to patient satisfaction by leveraging machine learning. More than 46% of the reviews were negative (1-2 stars), and 50.1% were positive (4-5 stars). The mean (SD) rating was 3.1 stars, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open. Negative feedback often cited administrative problems (such as unfair payment and poor phone interactions), and positive …

Some Patients Feel Disrespected in Healthcare Settings

A surprising number of women—nearly 1 in 4—say they have experienced unfair or disrespectful treatment in healthcare settings within the past 2 years, according to survey results from KFF. The survey of 5,055 women and 1,191 men showed 23% of women reported recent negative interactions with providers, and 18% of men reported the same. Weight was the most commonly cited reason (15%) for perceiving disrespect or unfairness, followed by age, gender, and race. Black and …

Positive Perception of Urgent Care Rises

A new poll from Gallup found that Americans have a more favorable perception of the care and attention they receive at urgent care compared to many other provider types. Among the list of 9 healthcare players in the 2023 Health and Healthcare survey, urgent care ranks just above the middle at number 4. Here’s how respondents rated urgent care: “Excellent/Good”: 56%; “Only Fair”: 32%; “Poor”: 10%. Nurses receive the best rating from consumers with 82% …

Nurse-Only Visits in Urgent Care: An Analysis of Outcomes and Patient Satisfaction Relative to Traditional Care

Urgent message: As shown in an in-house study by one urgent care operator, protocol-driven, nurse-only care of specific presenting complaints may be one way to help curb healthcare spending while not compromising on quality of care or threatening patient-satisfaction scores. Kyle Coon and Brett Whyte, MD Abstract Basic healthcare costs are rising at a staggering and, it’s widely considered, unsustainable rate. As a result, lower-cost alternatives that maintain quality and satisfaction are being explored across …

How Colleagues Treat Each Other Affects Quality of Care—and Outcomes

Rude behavior in the workplace might cost you good employees. Even worse, though, a new study indicates the consequences of incivility extend to patients. In a blog post for The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Gurpreet Dhaliwal, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a practicing physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, describes what happened when clinical staff participating in an Israeli training exercise were broken into 24 pairs …

Geisinger Says No Thanks to Performance Bonuses for Physicians

Geisinger Health System is turning away from industry trends that see physicians being paid bonuses tied to quality and patient satisfaction, instead vowing to pay them straight salaries that are at or above national averages for compensation. Previously, Geisinger has paid their 1,600 physicians—including those staffing their urgent care centers—based on a formula of 80% salary and 20% performance bonus, as is common these days (though the percentages may vary somewhat from system to system). …

Courtesy Counts Toward Patient Satisfaction

The old axiom “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” is highly relevant in urgent care, where patients already not having the best of days are probably encountering your front desk staff and clinical team for the first time. Now a new study shows how those patients perceive the professionals they meet in your location is likely to influence their overall satisfaction, as well as their likelihood of complaining later on. …

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