What are the arguments that support occupational health and urgent care integration?
- “We do not put Agility into our ED except for look-ups. For example, when a work injury presents, we can look it up to see if a patient needs a drug test.”
- “Urgent care and ED need to be attuned to their separate responsibilities.”
- “There are several issues to consider: state requirements for urgent care, requisite certifications, etc.”
- “The key rationale is economies of scale, space considerations, staffing, cross-training, sales/marketing, and operations.”
- “Many times patients walk into our urgent care centers for work-related conditions
Should we develop separate staff models?
- “We plan to keep them separate, although we have integrated internal and external occupational health staff, in terms of common cross coverage and cross training.”
- “We do share the waiting room and use a common registration desk. It’s not ideal though.”
- “We are blended. When we have an ill walk-in, we try to walk them back to separate them from the larger patient waiting group.”
- “Consider innovative ad-hoc barriers such as fish tanks and plants.”
- “We emphasize fast-tracking drug tests; we schedule innovatively (give company discount if they schedule at a certain time of day) based on anticipated active and inactive times.”
- “Don’t underestimate the importance of training front desk staff to deal appropriately with a mixed-clinic population.”
Should we develop outcome monitors for each or as a single entity?
- “Populations are different and so they should have outcomes that are different for treatment, standards, and competencies, but you should have the same standards for productivity.”
- “We measure population patient satisfaction. If it is an urgent care patient, we use the Press Ganey If occupational health, we use Survey Monkey for every patient.”
- “We do employer satisfaction quarterly, using a different Survey Monkey process with all employer clients.”
Should there be a single medical director in such an integrated model?
- “It depends. Variables include practice size, skills, and medical directors in question, plus do they spend more time in oversight or more time in direct patient care?”
- “Sometimes co-medical directors work well. They will need to effectively partner with your E.D.”
- “Ours are separate. It’s too complicated to manage both, for example, clinic hours are different.”
- “If they are separate, it is critical that they share common goals. Collaboration is essential.”
What are the most important special considerations for a blended clinic?
- “Regulatory compliance is important. Be aware of the specific requirements of your clinic. What does your market want? What is the profile of the local sub-market?”
- “You need staffing competencies appropriate to all parties.”
- “We have risk and compliance and legal weighing in on everything.”
Are there marketing tactics that can market both service lines at the same time?
“We strive to note that we also offer urgent care when marketing to occasional health prospects and vice versa.”
With regard to best practices for EHR issues when you integrate, is it better to use separate EHRs to minimize inadvertent HIPAA violations?
- “We use both Epic and SYSTOC and use them separately, it helps in many ways, including monitoring HIPAA issues.”
- “I have seen both done. The key is to use software to connect urgent care to the E.D. so you can transfer patients with ease.”
- “If acuity level is high in a market, it is critical to developing a smooth connection with your E.D.”
- “We use Agility and that works well. In many ways it depends on what your program does, for example, how large it is.”
- “It is critical to have permission to get into Epic for critical info.”
