Thread: California orders shorter wait times to see a doctor

Jan 19, 2010

California orders shorter wait times to see a doctor

05:48 PM

It won't happen until next year, but millions of Californians will have shorter waits to see a doctor or get a call-back, the Associated Press reports.

Tomorrow, the state's Department of Managed Health Care will announce new rules that set time limits on when physicians must see patients and return phone their calls.

• A limit of 10 business days on the appointment time to see a family practitioner.

• A 15-day window to see a specialist.

• 48 hours for urgent care.

• 30 minutes for a doctors' offices to return telephone calls.

Although the new regulations apply only to doctors in health maintenance organizations, they will cover roughly 21 million Californians.

Read the complete regs. http://wpso.dmhc.ca.gov/regulations/regs/?key=20

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... a-doctor/1

48 hours for urgent care.

If you can stay alive for 48 hours without seeing a doctor it wasn't very urgent.

What a stupid thing to do. Typical liberal thinking.

That is insane and it will only increasingly overwhelm ERs. Most primary doctors already spend about 5 mins. max with patients, pat them on the head and send them to get a prescription. It is all about money, getting patients in and out the door in record time, sorta like turning tables during dinner rush for more tips.

Actually it might be nice to be able to get an appointment in a reasonable amount of time.

Why would anyone oppose being able to get an appointment when they need one?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Actually it might be nice to be able to get an appointment in a reasonable amount of time.

Why would anyone oppose being able to get an appointment when they need one?

I agree. There is no reason to have to wait weeks and weeks for an appointment. But I have to say that I think urgent care patients should be seen earlier than 48 hours. Maybe my definition of urgent care it different than theirs. I am thinking of urgent care being something like an ear infection or such. Or would that come under emergency care? I define emergency care as a gun shot wound.

Originally Posted by redpony353

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Actually it might be nice to be able to get an appointment in a reasonable amount of time.

Why would anyone oppose being able to get an appointment when they need one?

I agree. There is no reason to have to wait weeks and weeks for an appointment. But I have to say that I think urgent care patients should be seen earlier than 48 hours. Maybe my definition of urgent care it different than theirs. I am thinking of urgent care being something like an ear infection or such. Or would that come under emergency care? I define emergency care as a gun shot wound.

Urgent Care would be when you need 6 stitched in a cut, not when your whole arm has been cut off.

Emergency is a life and death situation, Urgent Care isn't.

Heart Attack is ER not Urgent Care.

Urgent Care, like the ER, doesn't require an appointment anywhere I have ever seen one.

Urgent care

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Urgent care is the delivery of ambulatory care in a facility dedicated to the delivery of medical care outside of a hospital emergency department, usually on an unscheduled, walk-in basis. Urgent care centers are primarily used to treat patients who have an injury or illness that requires immediate care but is not serious enough to warrant a visit to an emergency room. Often urgent care centers are not open on a continuous basis, unlike a hospital emergency room which would be open at all times.

The initial urgent care centers opened in the 1970s. Since then this sector of the health care industry has rapidly expanded to an approximately 10,000 centers. Many of these centers have been started by entrepreneurial physicians who have responded to the public need for convenient access to unscheduled medical care. Other centers have been opened by hospital systems, seeking to attract patients. Much of the growth of these centers has been fueled by the significant savings that urgent care centers provide over the care in a hospital emergency department. Many managed care organizations (MCOs) now encourage their customers to utilize the urgent care option.

[edit] Other ambulatory healthcare facilities
Urgent care centers are distinguished from other similar types of ambulatory healthcare centers.

[edit] Emergency departments
Emergency departments are located within hospitals and are prepared to care for patients suffering true emergencies, such as myocardial infarctions ("heart attacks"), serious motor vehicle accidents, suicide attempts, and other such life-threatening conditions. Being located within a hospital, these centers are positioned to provide ready access to major surgeries and critical care units. Emergency departments are usually staffed by physicians with specialized training or board certification in emergency medicine. Most states in the USA require all hospitals to house an emergency department within the hospital building. A few states in the USA allow freestanding emergency departments to be built outside of a hospital building. Many authorities would consider this type of facility to be a high-acuity urgent care center, rather than a true emergency department.

[edit] Primary care offices with extended hours
Many primary care offices are open for some hours in the evenings and weekends. However, unless these centers are open for walk-in patients at all times when open for patients, offer on-site x-ray facilities, and care for most simple fractures and lacerations—these primary care physician offices are not considered to be true urgent care centers.

[edit] Walk-in primary care offices
Allowing walk-in patients is not a sufficient criterion to define a physician office as an urgent care. If the office does not offer the expanded services and significant after-hours care, then the physician office would not fit the definition of an urgent care center.

[edit] Mid-level provider offices in retail stores
In 2000, medical treatment centers opened in retail stores with an on-site pharmacy. These centers are generally staffed with nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Prices are generally posted in public view and patients can shop while waiting. These retail clinics are not true urgent care centers because of the limited level of care that can be provided without a physician or proper equipment on site. Concerns about conflict of interest and incentives to over-prescribe medications in a facility rented from a pharmacy have yet to be fully addressed by organized medicine or governmental agencies, but the American Academy of Family Practice has issued Desired Attributes for Retail Clinics [1].

[edit] Criteria for Urgent Care Centers
The Urgent Care Association of America established criteria for urgent care centers in April 2009 - The Certified Urgent Care Center designation. These criteria define scope of service, hours of operation, and staffing requirements. Information and Certification criteria are available to the public at [1]

[edit] Organized medicine and urgent care
The Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) holds an annual spring convention and, also, offers an annual fall conference. In the past the American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine (AAUCM) did sponsor a few conventions, but did not hold a convention in 2008 and has canceled it's 2010 convention "because of the current economic situation". Many leaders in organized urgent care medicine anticipate the full establishment of urgent care as a fully-recognized specialty.

[edit] Codes for urgent care
In recent years the American Medical Association approved the code UCM (Urgent Care Medicine). This code was developed in cooperation with the American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine and the AMA for physicians to self-designate themselves as specializing in urgent care medicine. Services rendered in an urgent care center may be designated, using the place of service code -20 (POS -20) on the CMS-1500 form, as submitted to third-party payors. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have designated two specific codes to apply to urgent care centers: S9083 (global fee for urgent care centers) and S9088 (services rendered in an urgent care center). Because of the complex nature of coding for urgent care centers, the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) offers a specialized two-day coding workshop for providers and coders as part of its annual fall conference. The workshop is offered two tracks: basic and advanced urgent care coding.

[edit] Postgraduate fellowship training
In 2006, the Urgent Care Association of America sponsored the first fellowship training program in urgent care medicine. This fellowship resulted from collaboration between the Department of Family Medicine University Hospitals of Cleveland / Case School of Medicine, the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA), and University Primary and Specialty Care Practices, Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio. The program is partially funded by an unrestricted grant from the Urgent Care Association of America to support the fellowship program. Physicians in the urgent care fellowship program receive training in the many disciplines that an urgent care physician needs to master. These disciplines include adult emergencies, pediatric emergencies, wound and injury evaluation and treatment, occupational medicine, urgent care procedures, and business aspects of the urgent care center. In 2007, the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) sponsored a second fellowship opportunity through the University of Illinois. The one-year fellowships are open to graduates of accredited Family Medicine and Med/Peds residencies.

[edit] Point-of-care medication dispensing
Point-of-Care dispensing enables healthcare practitioners in the urgent care setting to ensure that their patients receive their prescription prior to leaving the clinic. To offer this service to patients, urgent care centers need to partner with a point-of-care dispensing corporation.

Point of Care dispensing not only enables physicians to dispense at urgent care facilities; but any licensed health care facility with a licensed dispensing practitioner on staff (Not all practitioners are able to dispense). The patient may opt to receive medication at the point of care. Unlike a pharmacy, practitioners may only dispense to their own patients. Regulations regarding state pharmacy law vary from state to state. Dispensing by a healthcare practitioner is not legal in certain states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgent_care

If the health care bill passes, they can kiss this law goodbye. It will be impossible to even get an appointment with your dr. There will be fewer doctors and if what I have read is any indication, you will not find a qualified dr.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Originally Posted by redpony353

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Actually it might be nice to be able to get an appointment in a reasonable amount of time.

Why would anyone oppose being able to get an appointment when they need one?

I agree. There is no reason to have to wait weeks and weeks for an appointment. But I have to say that I think urgent care patients should be seen earlier than 48 hours. Maybe my definition of urgent care it different than theirs. I am thinking of urgent care being something like an ear infection or such. Or would that come under emergency care? I define emergency care as a gun shot wound.

Urgent Care would be when you need 6 stitched in a cut, not when your whole arm has been cut off.

Emergency is a life and death situation, Urgent Care isn't.

Heart Attack is ER not Urgent Care.

Urgent Care, like the ER, doesn't require an appointment anywhere I have ever seen one.

That has always been my experience as well. I have never heard of making an appointment for urgent care. I dont think 48 hours for an urgent care appointment is adequate. Urgent care needs to be same day care.