Practice Management
It’s an incredible honor to be writing this column as the new CEO of the Urgent Care Association (UCA). I’ve long admired the work of this organization, and over the past several years, I’ve had the privilege of engaging with many of you as a colleague, advocate, and fellow believer in the value Urgent Care brings to healthcare. Stepping into this role feels less like a new beginning and more like a full-circle moment—one that …
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Urgent Care people would rather drive change than reactively manage its aftereffects. The same is true of all of us who lead the Urgent Care Association (UCA), College of Urgent Care Medicine (CUCM), Urgent Care College of Physicians (UCCOP), Urgent Care Foundation (UCF), Commission on Ambulatory and Urgent Care Quality (CAUCQ), and our regional chapters. To drive change, you must evolve fast enough to stay ahead, but evolving is usually a messy business. That’s been …
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I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season and that your centers are full of patients…but also that you and your colleagues have managed to stay healthy! For the Urgent Care Association (UCA), the College of Urgent Care Medicine (CUCM), the Urgent Care College of Physicians (UCCOP), and the Urgent Care Foundation (UCF), Q1 is Urgent Care Convention ramp-up time, leading toward our favorite time of year when we all get to gather and …
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Every time I am able to gather in person with other Urgent Care professionals, I come away enriched and invigorated for the future of our practice. No matter the challenges that we may be facing as an industry or a specialty, there is a stubborn optimism that infuses these events and the people that participate as speakers, exhibitors, planners or attendees. These events are perfect examples of what the Urgent Care Association (UCA) stands for, …
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For as long as I can remember, Urgent Care has defined itself in the context of something else. We’re “more than primary care but less than emergency,” and “we’re like those drugstore clinics but we can do a lot more.” Or “we fill a gap in on-demand access.” I guess that is necessary when you are new and small and unknown. The problem with this kind of definition is that it’s so other-dependent. The way …
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Before I jump into this column, I want to mention our recent Advocacy victory: getting a mention of Urgent Care into the Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services publication of the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. If you want more details on why this is a big deal, you can listen to the 2 interviews I did with Eric Zimmerman (our lobbyist team leader) on the Urgent Care Leadership Podcast (found anywhere you get your …
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I like to think that I usually have a pretty good read on Urgent Care, but I am currently mystified by something and need your help. For as long as I can remember, everyone in Urgent Care has chanted a common refrain: “We need a seat at the table!” In the beginning, we were too small to make enough noise to be heard and way, way too tight on funds to even think about hiring …
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Members of the Urgent Care Association (UCA) get a lot of “free” stuff—resources, checklists, podcasts, job searches, magazines, webinars, templates, plans, and so on. But this year at the Urgent Care Convention we are going one better (two, actually). I’m talking about our new “Ask a Consultant” sessions and our Quality Programs Center, both of which essentially provide the space for free consulting (yes, free). The Ask a Consultant sessions feature top, vetted consultants who …
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Do you remember what it was like in the summer of 2020? If that summer had a theme, it would have been “overlooked.” Everyone was jumping up and down and waving their arms to get the attention of suppliers, government agencies, payers, diagnostic companies, and pharmaceutical companies so we could meet the needs of the patients literally lining up in front of our centers. We had to fight for every single thing we got, and …
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“Driving Change” is our overarching convention theme that we build on each year. When you are busy Driving Change in healthcare delivery, there aren’t a lot of breaks. In just the normal day-to-day of Urgent Care, you are anticipating, meeting, and exceeding the needs of your patients. You are doing the same for your occupational medicine employer customers. You are doing the same for your colleagues. You are doing the same for your strategic partners. …
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