4 Factors That Determines the Success of Urgent Care Centers

Urgent care clinics are the new breed of medical care in the health sector around the world. Across the U.S. there are about 6900 clinics spread around in a heavily fragmented market, according to HealthCare Appraisers. Most of these clinics are owned by physicians and no clinic, in particular, dominates the market in terms of service delivery.

The urgent care clinics primary goal is to offer skilled convenient and affordable care for people with urgent medical needs. They focus on treating and managing minor injuries and illnesses such as broken bones, sprains, stomach pains, minor burns, and infections. Urgent care centers have come a long way to bridge the gap between traditional retail clinics and the emergency centers. In that, they handle serious but not so life-threatening medical conditions.

The success of urgent care, however, is dependent on other factors. These factors have to work in tandem to ensure the continuity of the clinic and that patients receive the best medical attention when an urgent need arises. Here are five vital factors of success in urgent care facilities.

1.Operational competencey
In a hospital setting, operational competence and clinical quality are the key elements of building a trustable urgent care center. Clinical quality refers to the trust patients have in your service. For instance, patients with minor injuries and illnesses expect to receive the best treatment upon visiting a clinic. They hope for the right diagnosis and expect the right treatment. Not some medication that will react with your body later on.

An urgent care facility that works towards improving its operations, treatment and service delivery, is scaling for success. Reliability is also a good measure of operational competence. In fact, the reason why urgent care clinics are mushrooming at a fast rate is that they offer reliable and most convenient care. Most of them operate 24 hours a day, and many are opened even on weekends.

2.Healthcare regulations
Healthcare is a highly regulated entity with numerous compliance measures from OSHA regulations and human resources policies to medical billing and coding. Although these regulations are important in standardizing healthcare, smaller clinics may be limited to implement all of them as they tend to depend more on outsourced resources.

For multi-speciality urgent care clinics that handle an array of minor injuries and illnesses, there would be a compliance officer whose work is to oversee and manage compliance issues. A successful clinic has to comply with regulatory standards. And this is not only important for the management or making profit, but for the overall well-being of the patient.

3.Financial and resource management
The success of an urgent care business greatly depends on its financial management competence and accuracy. The most vital elements of financial management in profit-making organizations include payroll, employee remuneration, compensation, rewards, and benefits. And any business that handles employee welfare seriously is on track to success.

As an urgent care owner, your management should focus on creating a thriving environment and retaining employees for the long term. Introduce good policies and procedures that influence a positive outcome on your healthcare systems.

4.Competent customer care
Another important factor of success in urgent care is customer service. In most cases, this is what separates performing and non-performing health centers. Good customer service is not only effective on the front desk, but across all care points. To ensure customer satisfaction, try as much as possible to keep the waiting times reasonable and responding to patient’s concern as soon as possible.

Although you might be specialized in treating minor injuries and illnesses, a poor customer service can deter patients from visiting your clinic. Efficiency is what patient’s looks for. Ensure there is a flow of communication and that patient’s queries and concerns are addressed in record time. These are some of the things urgent care clinics must embrace to become successful.