Integrating an Urgent Care Clinic Into an Academic Family Medicine Practice

Abstract

Background and Objectives: There has been a growth in the demand for convenient, walk-in access in health care across the United States, resulting in primary care practices seeing a shift in services to urgent care centers (UCCs). In order to incorporate the flexibility of a UCC and improve primary care access and preventive care for our regular patients, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Family Medicine Center (FMC) established a UCC within the practice. This report describes that process and the impact of the new UCC on our academic practice. Methods: With the support of the UNC health care system, our primary objectives were to provide enhanced access for patients with acute problems, decrease emergency department (ED) utilization, and increase enrollment of new patients for ongoing primary care. As part of our intervention, we asked providers to respond to a series of questions at the end of each visit. These questions, along with data regarding number of visits and revenue, were tracked longitudinally. Results: By the end of our first year, we were treating about 900 patients per month, of which approximately one-third would have otherwise visited the ED. We averaged 115 new patients establishing care per quarter. In addition to the success of this new service line, our primary practice maintained provider continuity and grew at a higher rate than prior to opening the UCC. Conclusions: The opening of urgent care at the UNC FMC provided improved access for our patients, increased the number of patients empaneled in our primary care practice, and provided a new revenue stream.

Awareness and utilization of urgent care services among patients attending Al-Wazarat PHCC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2020

“…[ 3 ] Providing such a comprehensive approach for every patient requires effort and time, leading to extended waiting hours with inconvenient working time and schedules to both physicians and patients. [ 4 ] Primary care physicians are trained to treat acute and chronic illness with no limit to a specific disease through a holistic patient-centered approach and in connection with every other medical specialty. Understanding this kind of role, we can see that it is vital for urgent care clinics to be managed by Primary care physicians.…”

Breaking Down Silos by Sharing Innovation in Academic Family Medicine

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“…In the June 2020 issue of Family Medicine, only two brief reports 1,2 list individuals in the Acknowledgments section as contributing to the submission. Rules of authorship dictate who gets writing credit, but few journals specify how the acknowledgment section should be used.…”