Urgent Care Case Study

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Over the last few decades, Urgent Care Centers have evolved along with ever-changing healthcare reform issues. In the journey towards healthcare reform, which affects all patients, Americans are faced with significant challenges since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (known as “Obamacare”) takes hold. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans have lost their coverage and have found themselves being forced to shop for new primary care physicians, in an already flooded marketplace with a shortage of physicians. Since this new healthcare reform and the press for individual responsibility, there has been a surge of patients utilizing Urgent care centers because of overcrowded emergency departments, cost savings, availability, services rendered, and ease of care. Urgent care centers (UCCs) previewed in the 1980s, but soon the industry declined and faded. The decline was attributed to two main reasons. One cause was that hospitals saw these urgent care centers as potential profit and a possible way to generate additional business while eliminating competition. The second reason was due to insufficient marketing strategies (Robin M. Weinick, 2007). Despite initial optimism, in the…show more content…
Some states may require physician ownership of UCCs. These states include Texas; California; Ohio; Colorado; Iowa; Illinois; and New Jersey (Lucia F. Bruno., 2011). Multispecialty group owned UCCs are usually and extension of group’s practice used specifically for after-hours overflow patients that were not able to be seen by their primary care physician. This provides the patient with continuity of care. Hospital owned UCCs are more prone to be able to connect patients with follow-up care and referrals, because most hospitals operate on a shared electronic health record

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