Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Nearly Three Quarters of Clinicians Use Telehealth

Less than 3 years ago, barely more than half of healthcare providers used telemedicine and related services. Today, however, that proportion sits ag 71%, according to two new HIMSS Analytics studies that analyzed inpatient and outpatient telemedicine. The data indicate that “hub-and-spoke” models, in which the flow of care draws patients from lower acuity outpatient settings to larger, more comprehensive facilities, are the most popular, accounting for 59.6% of provider use. (These are more common …

Michigan Blues Start Pushing Telemedicine

Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Michigan and Blue Care Network have apparently seen the light when it comes to the benefits of telemedicine. They’re working with physician groups on creating new financial incentives to expand member utilization. Seventeen groups, in fact, have already submitted telemedicine plans that could reap additional payments. Others are strategizing the best way to incorporate or expand telehealth offerings. BCBS says urgent care will figure prominently in its own efforts. …

Could Telehealth Be the Key to Urgent Care Realizing ‘Triple Aim?’

Urgent care has continued to grow based on its attributes of improving patients’ care experience at a lower cost than the emergency room, and by contributing to healthier populations—a triad of goals referred to as “triple aim.” Maintaining that growth may depend on outpacing other settings’ ability to change with the times. Twenty years since its inception—coinciding with urgent care’s own growth trajectory—telehealth may prove to be an invaluable tool in accomplishing that. One operator …

Urgent Care Needs to Educate Patients on Telemedicine

Telemedicine has been shown to provide valuable access for patients who otherwise might not be able to see a physician in person. Unfortunately, not all patients have gotten the message that it’s best used as an alternative to heading to the doctor’s office; instead, they follow a virtual visit with a face-to-face encounter, thereby costing themselves and/or their insurers money unnecessarily. When RAND crunched data on CalPERS Blue Shield members who used Teledoc virtual visit …

Telemedicine Helps Reduce Overuse of Emergency Rooms—Could Urgent Care, Too?

A telemedicine ambulance triage system is helping to keep nonemergent cases out of the emergency room in Houston—perhaps indicating one more way urgent care could contribute to improving access to affordable, quality care for patients with non–life-threatening concerns. A briefing on Advisory Board notes that the city’s ED wait times were among the worst in the country 10 years ago, thanks to up to 50% of patients, in effect, seeking primary care in their local …

Jump in Flu Cases Increases Telemedicine Use

Carena, a virtual urgent care center in Seattle, has gained a healthy following among brick-and-mortar urgent care clinics around the country by “seeing” patients with fairly typical complaints like rashes and symptoms of bladder infections. The company reports that their lines are really jumping now that flu season is in full force. They, and other e-medicine providers, can’t offer flu shots, of course, but they can help patients who don’t have the flu avoid exposure …

Expect to See More Urgent Care NPs, PAs, and Telemedicine in 2017

The growth of telemedicine in urgent care and other settings is helping feed greater access to nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Relaxed scope of practice laws in both red and blue states, as well as evolving digital health technology that exploits the popularity of smartphones and tablets, make it easier and less expensive for patients to connect online—a model that typically employs NPs and PAs under the supervision of an on-site physician. This is further …

Time for Urgent Care to Embrace Telemedicine

Being an industry populated by medical professionals who also happen to be forward-thinking business visionaries, urgent care is likely to see accelerated growth in telemedicine in 2017 and beyond. Conversely, operators who don’t see the benefit run the risk of getting left in the dust, as even large healthcare businesses and networks—typically, slower to adopt new practices than entrepreneurial types—are forging ahead in offering virtual visits. Occupational medicine giant Concentra just announced it is adding …

Texan Business Leaders Call for Fewer Restrictions on Telemedicine

The Texas Association of Business—the state’s chamber of commerce, essentially—is pushing lawmakers to come up with a bill that would allow more patients to use telemedicine. The TAB says the move is necessary after a decade of rising healthcare premiums and deductibles, which has increased the burden both on its members and their employees. Loosening restrictions on telemedicine has seen opposition from the physician-led Texas Medical Board, whose efforts have seen to it that the …

NJ Lawmakers Take a Closer Look at Telemedicine

Legislators in New Jersey are weighing the relative benefits of telemedicine in order to ensure the evolving technology is used properly—namely, that there’s no danger of virtual doctor visits taking the place of in-person care then the latter is clearly needed. Advocates point out that sometimes patients need to see a physician after even urgent care centers have close, though their symptoms don’t warrant an expensive trip to the emergency room. Detractors say some patients …