Medical assistants (MAs) are the core of urgent care’s clinical support workforce (as noted in Cost Effective Staffing with Medical Assistants in the January, 2017 edition of JUCM; see https://www.jucm.com/cost-effective-staffing-medical-assistants/). However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for MAs is expected to outstrip supply over the next decade, just as the aging baby-boom population will increase demand for physician services—especially in the primary care setting, where the bulk of MAs work. For urgent …
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Can ePrescribing Help Urgent Care Fight Against Opioid Addiction?
The episodic nature of the urgent care setting makes it a popular target for opioid addicts “doctor shopping” for someone new to write prescriptions. As such, urgent care clinicians must remain always-vigilant for ways to help stem rampant opioid addiction. One tool that’s built into the urgent care electronic medical record systems (eprescribing) can be a valuable weapon in that fight. Where a paper script—or, worse, a whole pad—can be lost or stolen, an electronic …
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Managing Your Urgent Care Center’s Emotional Culture
Urgent message: As in most business settings, urgent care operators emphasize the importance of a positive cognitive culture. Given the close quarters and frequent interaction among colleagues and patients, however, emotional culture can also have a strong influence on quality of care, patient and employee satisfaction—and even the success of the operation. [The following summary of the January-February, 2016 Harvard Business Review Article spotlights how organizations are slowly realizing the importance of managing the emotional …
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Wanted: One Doctor to Answer the Call of the Rockies
If you have a dollar in your pocket right now and would relish the opportunity to practice in your own clinic in the Rocky Mountains, Park County, CO is waiting to fulfill your dreams. There’s a five-room clinic there that has been vacant for over 2 years, leaving some 16,000 residents without a local facility that can set their broken bones, prescribe antibiotics for their children’s earaches, or even provide follow-up for chronic conditions. Park …
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Can a DFW Airport Urgent Care Location Take Off?
Code 3 is gambling that opening a pair of acute care facilities at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)—an urgent care center and a separate freestanding emergency room—will help profits soar. However, some industry experts are skeptical that the airport has the right stuff. Code 3 says the clinic should open in August, while the goal for the ED is to open by the end of the year. While urgent care centers in airport locations are …
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Back Pain After Falling from a Ladder
A 21-year-old male presents to your urgent care center complaining of back pain after falling from a ladder. He is unclear about the exact point of impact, but the pain increases with attempts to bend or twist. Examination reveals he has decreased range of motion. View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider your next steps, along with possible diagnoses.
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Insurer Works to Help Members Choose Between Urgent Care and the ED
Typically, going to the emergency room costs a lot more than a trip to an urgent care center for the same complaint. You’d think insurers would be invested in getting their plan members to recognize the difference and make informed decisions accordingly. The chief medical officer of Innovation Health agrees, and revealed a “decision tree” to help patients choose wisely—and economically. Sunil Budhrani, MD, an emergency room doctor for close to 20 years who went …
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At Customers’ Behest, Urgent Care Player Getting into the Retail Game
Urgent care and hospital operator Sutter Health is diversifying its efforts to reach patients in multiple settings by opening its own retail-style walk-in clinics in the Sacramento, CA area. Sutter already operated a few retail clinics housed in Rite Aid stores, along with dozens of urgent care centers. Now they’ve opened three such locations of their own in neighborhood shopping centers, with plans to open nine more in the San Francisco Bay area this summer. …
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Who’s the Boss? The Organizational Impact of Bypassing the Chain of Command
Urgent message: A chain of command exists in most organizations to assure efficient and accurate communication, orderly and organized business operations, and proper allocation of time and resources. When the chain of command is broken, however, the entire business can suffer. In American business culture, organizations are typically built in a hierarchal structure and follow an established chain of command. To ensure smooth and efficient operations, employees are generally expected to communicate work issues to …
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Report is a Wakeup Call to Beef Up Data Security
About a quarter of all healthcare consumers have been the victims of healthcare data breaches, according to a new study by Accenture—and nearly have of those people ended up victims of medical identity theft. The cost? On average, $2,500 in out-of-pocket costs per incident, paid by the victim. Breaches were most likely to occur in hospitals, though urgent care centers, pharmacies, physician offices, and health insurers were also fertile ground for hackers and identity thieves. …
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