Adding Services and Hours to Your Facility

In tight economic times it’s tempting to delay growth and only focus on existing projects and systems. However, changes might be necessary. When it comes to expanding revenue, three of many options include increasing services, increasing hours or increasing both.

Don’t move too fast though. Consider whether the changes will require new equipment, equipment modifications, staff hiring, training, building redesign or additional supplies. Also, what would it take to market the changes?

Some ways to increase offerings are to add occupational medicine, sleep services, imaging, aesthetic laser services, sports medicine, medical discount cards, weight management, pharmacy, primary care and physical therapy.

The options are vast. Ancillary services are any that offer value to patients beyond treating episodic illness and injury, according to Alan Ayers, assistant vice president of product development at Concentra Urgent Care.

“Generally ancillary services are paid directly by consumers, although they may be reimbursed by insurance in some circumstances,” Ayers said.

Examples of “value-added” services that Concentra offers at various locations include: health risk assessment and biometric testing, lifestyle evaluation and coaching, travel medicine, immunizations, physical therapy and immigration medicine, he said.

Sometimes expansion of services and hours are not exclusive. An expansion at Physicians East Urgent Care in Greenville, N.C., for instance, required an increase of services and hours. The center recently increased its hours and incorporated a sleep center in four fully furnished “bedrooms” that are monitored by medical staff in a lab, according to an article that appeared in a Greenville newspaper, The Daily Reflector.

The sleep lab has received 15-20 sleep patients per week, according to the article.

At Harrison Medical Center’s Port Orchard Urgent Care Center in Northwest Washington, leadership in June 2008 increased hours to better serve the community. The center increased from a 12 to a 16-hour-a-day operation, and when the building is finished with renovations in early 2009, it will increase to a 24-hour-a-day operation.

“Patients wanted 24/7 urgent care they could utilize after normal working hours and not have to drive for several miles and wait several hours in an ER,” said Chris Hunt, RN, MBA, BC, operations manager of primary and urgent care services for Harrison Medical Center.

“The advantage of the 16-hour model is that we not only could adjust our staffing incrementally but also test our demand and better predict usage in the future,” Hunt said. “The advantage to 24/7 urgent care is that the community does not have to think about whether or not we are open.”

The situation, however, is not perfect.

“A disadvantage to the 24/7 model is the increased financial burden,” Hunt said. “Providing a full staff with full services is very expensive, but we feel the commitment to our community is a worthy investment.”

If an urgent care center owner or operator is thinking of extending their hours, they should conduct a formal business plan that includes demographics, patterns of use, staffing plans, benchmark data, etc., according to Hunt.

Adding lab services can be helpful, but before pursuing them, look into existing and potential competition inside and outside of urgent care. One potential competitor, Any Lab Test Now, for example, is expanding in several states. Any Lab Test Now provides thousands of standard healthcare tests to consumers and employers with or without physician’s order. There are more than 60 Any Lab Test Now facilities in the United States, and the services range from thyroid to paternity testing.

For urgent care centers that have in-house lab services, a tool that could be helpful is the Piccolo® xpress, an Abaxis product that provides diagnostic information at point of care. It’s about the size of a shoebox and includes a color touch screen. It monitors reagent reactions and reports the results in approximately 12 minutes. It also supplies a report.

In tough economic times many businesses stumble, but with creative thinking, bravery, tools and a good plan, some will rise to the top.

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines

Read Comments [0]