How Academic Medical Centers Are Responding
What do these developments mean for academic medical centers? “Looking five or ten years down the road, the outpatient side is going to be a major generator of revenue, and they're going to have to be able to play that game," says Robert Field, professor at Drexel University's Thomas R. Kline School of Law and Dornsife School of Public Health. “I think most hospitals acknowledge that because of the way they have participated in the consolidation frenzy and hedged their bets by being affiliated with a range of providers at all levels. If patients are coming in through urgent care, they want a piece of that action."
The Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals operate seven urgent care centers, open seven days a week, throughout the greater Philadelphia area. “We're just trying to follow the consumer trend of convenience, convenience, convenience," says Steven Gadowski, administrator, Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University.
George Washington University Medical Center is pursuing a similar path with four locations in the Washington, D.C. area. “Our experience has not been highly profitable so far, but it has been moderately profitable," says Donald Karcher, MD, Chair of Pathology and Director of Laboratories. “More importantly, it helps drive more specialty care to our specialists, which is a net gain for us. Patients get convenience, they get great care, and they have access to the specialists they need." Because academic medical centers don't traditionally put a heavy emphasis on primary care, they may be able to benefit more than other types of hospitals from developing synergy with urgent care clinics, without worrying about hurting the health of existing primary care services.
Karcher hopes his laboratories can also play a role in providing consulting services to urgent care settings, whether or not they are affiliated with the medical center. “When they get a result [from point-of-care testing] that doesn't make sense in the context of that patient, we could help them decide what it means and what additional testing the patient needs."