Urgent care providers are preparing for the onslaught of patients as the flu season reaches its peak — and recent news indicates that we could be in for the worst flu season in quite some time.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned of a severe flu season this year, after findings suggested that the flu vaccine was less effective than in previous years. Currently, influenza A H3N2 is the most common virus strain seen by providers, and this year's vaccine did not inoculate against this particular strain.
Make sure you have a strategy in place to deal with an influx of patients, whether from the flu or other unexpected situations like system downtimes, hardware failures and natural disasters. Documentation is a critical factor in maintaining efficiency and throughput during high volume times, and a successful patient surge strategy should make the following considerations relative to documentation:
- Scalability: Do you have a documentation method that can scale quickly and easily to handle high patient volumes? Is it simple enough to be implemented at a moment's notice?
- Accuracy: Are you using a tool that's designed to support consistent documentation for the wide variety of clinical presentations seen in the urgent care setting, and ensures critical health information is captured? Do these tools help drive accuracy and quality by providing visual cues for busy clinicians?
- Productivity and workflow: Can physicians quickly and accurately assess a patient and document care at the bedside? Is your tool intuitive enough for new staff to use without extensive training? Does your tool improve documentation efficiency so you can focus on patient care?
- Regulatory compliance and reimbursement: Does your tool take into account regulatory requirements and CDC guidelines? Is it designed to capture information necessary for optimal reimbursement?
The care delivery model has been shifting in recent years, with more patients opting for unscheduled care settings to address common illnesses like the flu. We live in a highly connected world with immediate access to most of our needs and wants, and healthcare is no exception.
Patients come to urgent care centers expecting both fast and high quality treatment. Without a sufficient strategy in place for dealing with an influx of patients, things can quickly spiral out of control, and productivity can come to a screeching halt.
Providing access to efficient care during high volume times like a severe flu season is critical in the highly competitive unscheduled care market.
