The Urgency Room

About The Urgency Room The Urgency Room is a rapidly expanding, innovative, and state-of-the-art practice of WE Healthcare, PLLC, a physician-owned company. Hire emergency-trained providers in an out-of-hospital setting to provide exceptional medical care. The layout of the clinical and structural environment is intentional and chosen to accommodate not only the delivery model but also the perceptual principles of patient care expectations. Emergency rooms and other urgent care facilities have been challenged by long wait times, the lack of transparency regarding total cost for patients, and higher co-pays. Exam rooms are similarly designed, which includes a right and left corridor concept on either side of the central core of the department. Our exam rooms are private, with both a nursing station and a provider work area in each clinical pod. Remote monitoring of patients is also possible if needed. The planned clinical workflow model departs from traditional models utilized by most emergency departments today. The traditional model of care involves the clinically trained provider, a nurse, an aide, and a medical scribe. Typically, providers and nurses are in and out of every room, multitasking to handle the workload. The nurse is usually responsible for vital signs, gathering of past medical history information, and the setup for procedures from the provider. This can lead to inefficiencies, missed information, and potentially decreased quality of care. Our facility has a new and innovative clinical model that is designed to improve throughput, patient experience, and overall patient safety. The first component of the model starts in the triage area with patients being assessed, vital signs taken, and registration completed. The second component involves tracking patients with a computerized system that uses a patient's identification bracelet to track them. This ensures proper right-sided and left-sided corridors are utilized, with the computer automatically informing the triage nurse when the room is ready and that the patient has been waiting too long. The provider will be able to call the patient back into the room. This eliminates the need for the front desk/ER tech to call the patient multiple times if they fail to respond. After the patient has been evaluated, free-standing X-ray is available to expedite care. The patient is moved into an imaging room, which has a wall of glass, allowing the provider to see what is going on in the room. A notification is sent to the provider that the patient is ready for a review of the X-rays. This facilitation of patient care allows for a quicker review of labs and X-rays than one would see in most emergency departments. The flow of this model is designed around the workflow of the entire department, ensuring that the patient moves through the department in an organized and timely manner. This model is designed to integrate with our electronic medical record system, which houses our data for an efficient process of document generation. Management Experience The manager and staff selected for The Urgency Room have all had experience managing the clinic through the following phases: planning, development, implementation, and operation. Our management team has a strong business background from Fortune 500 companies, including the likes of Target and Best Buy. In this way, they are highly skilled in implementing processes that allow efficient operations and high-quality care. With experience in strategic planning, the manager has been able to see projects from start to finish, from inception to completion. This ensures that we are not only able to plan and design processes but also identify potential issues that may arise and prepare for them accordingly. The staff have also been carefully selected based on experience and background. They have had extensive experience in the operations of medical clinics, and therefore, have a strong working knowledge of what clinic operations require. This experience also gives them a competitive advantage in that they have a strong understanding of the challenges that clinics typical face as well as the unique challenges that urgent care facilities face. This experience also gives them the ability to predict potential issues that may arise and develop solutions to overcome those challenges. Operations Plan The Urgency Room will have a unique operating plan that is unlike other urgent care facilities and emergency departments. Our plan is designed to maximize the efficiency and quality of care and minimize the time that patients spend in the facility. This plan is built on a patient flow model that is unique to The Urgency Room. This model separates patients based on the type of injury or illness that they have, so they never have to wait for care. Once they are assessed by the triage nurse, they are placed in either a right-sided or left-sided corridor, with the right left corridor being for minor illnesses and the left corridor being for the more severe illnesses. Since The Urgency Room is an urgent care facility, we aim to minimize the time that patients spend in the facility. The goal is to have a patient in and out of the facility in under an hour. To do this, we have developed an operating plan that allows for this type of patient flow. It is intuitive and designed to maximize patient throughput and operator efficiency. Over the course of an 8-12 hour shift, the facility can see up to 60 patients. This volume is dependent upon the acuity level of patients and their acuity level will be assessed by the triage nurse in the lobby. This operating plan also has principles of patient quality and employee satisfaction in mind. The Urgency Room will be a high-quality urgent care facility and will have high-quality processes and procedures that drive the quality of care. The workflow model is designed to reduce errors by automating many of the processes that are currently done manually. The providers are guided through the patient evaluation process, which eliminates the need for paper work to be passed back and forth, speeding up the process and reducing the risk of errors. The electronic medical record system also stores the corrected data in an electronic format, which allows for quick search and retrieval. Termination The goal of The Urgency Room is that it will be a high-performing and successful urgent care facility. It functions efficiently and provides a high level of patient care, with a well-trained staff and a sophisticated management system. Unfortunately, if a decision must be made to terminate The Urgency Room, there will be the need to consider what the future process will be, as the management team of the facility has been successful. There is only a 5% chance that the facility will need to be closed, so a contingency plan will be needed to be developed. This plan will assess the facility's current operations and determine if they can be restructured to save costs. If instability continues or worsens, the facility will be forced to close permanently. At this point, the board of directors will begin selling off assets and dissolving the business. The remaining assets will be distributed as instructed by the board of directors at the time.

Patients who had been served commended the clinic. They described the staff as helpful, professional, and efficient. '"Kind", "friendly", and "caring" are also terms that are frequently used. They also appreciated the way the clinic was managed. There was no need to wait for too long before receiving treatment. The online booking feature made it easy to obtain an appointment. That was handy because patients did not have to wait in long lines. Clinical evaluations were also done with respect. The patients described the experience as quick and beneficial. The staff were able to move quickly through the process while still being professional. Most patients recommended the clinic because it seemed clean and safe. That positive experience motivated them to return because they were convinced that they were receiving competent and caring services from the staff.