Walk in clinics like so many other healthcare entities do have their highs and lows, and it is a constant struggle at times to stay afloat. Walk in healthcare centers have become the fastest growing profit centers for retail chains. CVS Pharmacy has opened many minute clinics over the past few years and they continue to do well. They are fast expanding their minute clinics, exemplifying a trend of retailers opening health clinic services to supplement traditional physician’s office. Their goal is to have 1500 clinics by 2017. After several years of slow growth coinciding with the recession and its aftermath, they are taking off again. My family has had the opportunity to use them, mostly for convenience, with each being pleased with the outcome.
Mary recently brought her child to the Express Clinic at their Big Market Basket Food Store. This convenience clinic is staffed by a nurse practitioner from 8:00 A.M. until the store closes at 9:00 P.M., 7 days a week. The nurse practitioner did an exam and prescribed a prescription for an inner ear infection. Mary had it filled in the pharmacy and returned home. Shortly afterwards, she started to have second thoughts, “Should I have just waited and brought my daughter to the pediatrician?” she wondered? Two days later she got a newsletter from the Express Clinic. On the cover page she saw a story headline that said “In a recent survey, 97% of the mothers we surveyed were extremely satisfied with the care they received for their children at Express Clinic.” What strategy was being implemented by Express Clinic? What was the organization trying to counter?
The Crowded Clinic: Critical Analysis The Crowded Clinic Case Study (Colorado State University - Global, n.d.) discusses the issues of practice management as they apply to access to care. Access to care may be as inconvenient as lengthy patient wait times to issues far more serious that may have a profound effect on the health and well-being of a single patient or an entire cohort. In order to properly address the issue and look for a remedy, it is necessary to understand the underlying conditions that create the problem before creating the means to manage the change required to correct the problem. The Crowded Clinic has multiple issues, including social and operational, which are creating the associated inaccessibility to services.
During, my visit at your facility I had such a great experience and one in particular with Nurse Dianne Cooper. I'm a returning patient to the Piedmont Physician's office and I left a few years ago due to the awful customer service at your other location. Dianne, was not only professional but kind and informative. She was very attentive , patient and just exemplified what someone in the healthcare profession should. I was so impressed with her I asked the front office if there was anyway to leave a patient review for outstanding service.
The majority of a patient’s care remains within the system, enabling maximum efficiency and coordination. Furthermore, research has shown that ACOS help reduce medical errors, eliminate duplicate services and facilities as well as provide financial incentives to demonstrate high-quality, patient centered care (Richman, Schulman, 2011). Several ACOs across the country are showing an increase in care coordination leads to a reduction in no-shows, improved medication adherence and enhances preventative and chronic care. For example, in a care coordination pilot performed by Trinity Clinic, which is part of an ACO, care coordinators boosted quality and revenue by reducing their no show rate form 4.5% to 2.8% primarily due to a previsit phone call set up by the coordinators (Mullins, Mooney, & Fowler, 2013). ACOS are not the entire solution, but these organizations are certainly a step in the right direction, putting patient satisfaction and quality as part of their fundamental
Sidewalks are different shapes and sizes, people tend to make their own decisions to which way they would want to go. Going through the motions on a sidewalk is similar as going through the motions of life. There are many turns that could get you to your final destination and turns that can also get you into places you would not feel so comfortable being. Staying on the right path and trying to get to where you need to go isn’t so hard but when you have other sidewalks with nice grass and big beautiful street lights that can be a very big distraction to the eye and that could cause problems in your life. Nice sidewalks sometimes don't always tend to continue a nice path so they can be very believing at first but when you make it to the end
As part of the Affordable Care Act, beginning this year Medicaid will expand eligibility to include all uninsured individuals under the age of 65 whose incomes fall at or below 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, or about $32,500 for a family of four. However, the 2012 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law also allowed states more flexibility concerning what parts of the ACA they can implement and said that those same states would not lose federal funding for their existing programs. This result would leave the decision to opt out of the law's provision into the hands of state legislators. While twenty-six states have chosen to expand healthcare coverage, twenty-one states have not and four have yet to make a decision. The state of Florida is among those not seeking to expand coverage and that decision alone could cost Florida millions of dollars a year in tax penalties. As conservative and liberal state lawmakers square off into a maelstrom of debate over whether Medicaid should cover more people, thousands of uninsured Floridians will be caught in the crossfire.
It is no secret that the current healthcare reform is a contentious matter that promises to transform the way Americans view an already complex healthcare system. The newly insured population is expected to increase by an estimated 32 million while facing an expected shortage of up to 44,000 primary care physicians within the next 12 years (Doherty, 2010). Amidst these already overwhelming challenges, healthcare systems are becoming increasingly scrutinized to identify ways to improve cost containment and patient access (Curits & Netten, 2007). “Growing awareness of the importance of health promotion and disease prevention, the increased complexity of community-based care, and the need to use scarce human healthcare resources, especially family physicians, far more efficiently and effectively, have resulted in increased emphasis on primary healthcare renewal.” (Bailey, Jones & Way, 2006, p. 381).
The healthcare reform debate has been politicized in the United States for many years where there have been deliberate efforts by various stakeholders to ensure that they push for the reforms that are in line with the cost-benefit aspects that they have already envisioned. In this paper, I will attempt to prove that the reforms that have been witnessed in the healthcare in the recent years have not been effective and helpful to the society as a whole. When President Obama came into office, he promised to oversee great reforms in the healthcare which is his government he face much priority in the social policy aspects. The congress managed to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
Robert G Thompson, MD and his Soldotna and Anchorage teams understand that finding the right health clinic for your unique needs is a difficult and often impossible task. Yet, as a patient, it is extremely important that you do not compromise when selecting a health care team to work with. There are many criteria to evaluate before settling on a health clinic, but the most important should be whether or not the clinic’s team is willing to work with you to provide the support and care you need to maintain optimum health for your mind and body.
The Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, is a new health policy created by the American federal government. Its purpose is to make healthcare more affordable and friendly for the people. Unfortunately in some way that does not prove to be the case. It is becoming apparent that Obama may have made some misleading statements to help get the ACA put into action. The ACA is sprinkled with many flaws that call for a reform such as people’s current plans being terminated, high costs, and at minimum some people’s hours being cut by their employers.
In conclusion, opening one’s own clinic can be a grueling task but the feeling of achievement is way more than the road taken to get there. Having one’s own space and being your own boss can in many ways be beneficial. Working long hours and always being on your feet can feel a lot more satisfying when working for yourself. The challenge that comes with opening your own business is one that makes you strives to be better and bigger. Opening your own business isn’t the end; it is a journey that one must keep providing the best of the best service to their clients.
This article summary focuses on a registration process using kiosks. Baptist Health in Montgomery, Alabama uses registration kiosks to speed up registration, improve patient identification, improve patient communication, and improve point-of-service (POS) collections (Butcher, 2015). According to Jeri Pack, system director of revenue solutions for Baptist Health, it has been statistically proven that patient collections will increase either at POS or afterward (Butcher, 2015). If the patient receives a written estimate on his or her financial responsibility, there is a 60 percent chance of collecting that amount than if the patient was not informed beforehand (Butcher, 2015).
When asked to state the primary goal of his business, Dr. Slez cited “high quality health care service” as the firm’s main objective. The effective treatment of, and development of trust with, the practice’s patients, Dr. Slez continued, takes precedence over profits. Indeed, if all healthcare firms placed profits above patient care (and many do) we would be far worse off. While doing what is needed to stop the spread of a disease or alleviate pain may not always be the most cost effective approach, it is the approach demanded by the government and general public. This is not to say that Dr. Slez’s firm does not try to maximize profit. The f...
Life is full of uncertainties. Risk lurks in every nook and corner of human life. In short, life is unpredictable. We need to be prepared for such circumstances. Leading a happy life, involves good planning and analysis for your personal health. Accidents do happen and you need to be prepared for such situations. In times of high health cost, you need to get covered for health risks.
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