Establishing respiratory outpatient clinics has been shown to decrease reevaluation rates for patients with bronchiolitis, especially in children aged <12 months and/or those who receive suctioning during their initial urgent care encounter.
Fear of COVID-19 and confusion over the capabilities of urgent care centers are still combining to lead some patients to make poor decisions over where they seek care, and just what level of care they really need. Evidence of this is clear in a report aired recently by KRGV television in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas.
When holding a time slot that could go to another paying customer, it’s common for service businesses to charge no-show or cancellation fees. With many urgent care centers moving to online registration and queuing systems, could this be a solution for maximizing throughput in urgent care as well?
News that the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security were ready to plop down $230 million for at-home COVID-19 tests may have been great for the manufacturer, but it could have a deleterious effect on urgent care and other clinical settings that conduct testing—and on the patients the tests are designed to help, as well. The concern is that not all patients will be able to follow the instructions or be physically able to administer the test well enough to get reliable results.
Respiratory complaints due to use of e-cigarettes or vaping may be difficult to distinguish from those associated with influenza and other common respiratory illnesses. It is essential for the urgent care provider to ask patients who present with any respiratory complaint about vaping history, and to have a sound understanding of next steps for patients suspected of having e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI).
Many urgent care operators who couldn’t see the value in offering telemedicine services when patients could visit them on site at-will have changed their thinking since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Too many patients decided they could wait, or forego care completely, rather than take what they saw as a risk in visiting a healthcare facility. As it turned out, telemedicine gave those operators a chance to stay connected with patients and provide care where otherwise they might not have been able to.
Urgent care may have been relegated to the sidelines at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has entered the game and is contributing in a big way if new data from Experity are any indication. The health information technology company revealed record high visits in July, including 105,000 patients on July 6 alone—the highest single-day volume of the year.
Urgent care operators have suffered great economic hardship as many patients have ignored the need for same-day care because they were afraid of venturing out to a healthcare facility. The consequences of such decisions are even more perilous for the patient, of course. Some people may still be hesitant, so it’s time to be proactive in reminding them that you’re available to provide immediate, high-quality, safe care.
Many patients are deterred from getting a COVID-19 or antibody test because they fear being added to a government “surveillance list” or harassment (tracing) of their “contacts.” While urgent care centers or their third-party labs are required to report individual test results, they can assure patients that datasets are typically de-identified and aggregated when further analyzed or reported to the CDC.
From 2013 to 2019, the Urgent Care Association reported an increase in the number of urgent care clinics across the United States, providing more patients with access to treatment of non-life- or limb-threatening conditions and injuries. Urgent care clinics generally provide treatment beyond the scope, accessibility or availability of primary care practices or clinics.
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