urgent care documentation

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Hello everyone,

I am considering to apply for urgent care job. The main reason being presently I am taking my work home almost everyday and charting 3-4 hours at home and sometimes on weekends. So, I feel like I have no life at home. I am just documenting everyday. This is just with 15 patients. Slowly, patient load is going up and I do not want spend my entire week just documenting. It is really getting out of hands.

My question is: in urgent care, do you guyes take charting home? How long does it take to document in urgent care? Because my supervising physician participates in CPC+, there are so many codes that we have to enter everytime. Well, this is not the only reason I want to leave internal medicine, there are other reasons. But , if anyone can give me insights about documentation in urgent care, that will be great.

Thanks.

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I think you may need to address what is happening in your primary care job. The documentation requirements sound unrealistic

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I think it depends on what kind of urgent care position you're going to. There are busy urgent care centers where a provider is expected to see 3-4 patients/hour which gives you about 40-50 patients/day to see and document. Now they're usually acute concerns with pre-existing templates (if you're using an EHR) making charting concise. It also depends on what kind of EHR they're using. We use EPIC and I think it has been really helpful to chart since it has an "express lane" function and some "smart phrases/links/box" which makes charting a lot faster. Something to think about, UCCs are volume-driven and they are happier with more patients coming in. Expect to see 20-30 on a good day and 40-50 on a hectic day. Charting might be a breeze but it's still a lot. Once you get the hang of it though, most of our seasoned providers don't take charting home. They usually spend at most an hour later during their shift on a busy day but they never take it home. Best of luck!

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Thanks for the reply. It is very hard to get job in the urgent care because they want experience. I do have almost 1 year of experience in internal medicine but nothing in urgent care or ER. But, I have seen a lot in this one year. let's see I will keep applying. Thanks for the info.

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On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 6:12 PM, Oldmahubbard said:

I think you may need to address what is happening in your primary care job. The documentation requirements sound unrealistic

where do you work? Do you take work/charting home? how do you manage charting?

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19 hours ago, Eydyey said:

I think it depends on what kind of urgent care position you're going to. There are busy urgent care centers where a provider is expected to see 3-4 patients/hour which gives you about 40-50 patients/day to see and document. Now they're usually acute concerns with pre-existing templates (if you're using an EHR) making charting concise. It also depends on what kind of EHR they're using. We use EPIC and I think it has been really helpful to chart since it has an "express lane" function and some "smart phrases/links/box" which makes charting a lot faster. Something to think about, UCCs are volume-driven and they are happier with more patients coming in. Expect to see 20-30 on a good day and 40-50 on a hectic day. Charting might be a breeze but it's still a lot. Once you get the hang of it though, most of our seasoned providers don't take charting home. They usually spend at most an hour later during their shift on a busy day but they never take it home. Best of luck!

what kind of patient do you mostly see at urgent care? Do you do suturing? How did you learn suturing?

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

In my area - its expected that urgent care charting be completed bedside so that the PCP or specialist can have access to it. It would not be acceptable to chart later.

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18 hours ago, lovevaibhav1 said:

what kind of patient do you mostly see at urgent care? Do you do suturing? How did you learn suturing?

They're usually acute minor issues (URI, rashes, UTI, STDs, minor musculoskeletal issues). It depends on the resources of your urgent care. But Yes you do minor procedures such as sutures, i&d, toe nail removal, ear irrigations, etc. I was in the army as an RN and spent last 2 years of my duty in an urgent care/ED center where as an active duty soldier you have wider scope of practice. they let me do all those procedures while i was in FNP school. It made a diffirence as i was averaging 2-3 sutures per day before i graduated FNP school. But practice made me comfortable, there are suture practice kits for $40 on amazon you can buy to practice on. Let me know if you have questions.

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Specializes in Urgent care.

Do you use voice dictation?what kind of EHR do you use ? What's the best voice app that can help with patient notes ?

Thank you

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Just wondering if you ever got an urgent care job? I have been thinking about them myself for the same reasons.

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I sometimes moonlight in urgent care.  I don't think the documentation is much different but you are only focusing on "one" thing" .   The nursing staff asks the majority of the questions so that is nice...but I still like to go over that information again with the patient.

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Specializes in Former NP now Internal medicine PGY-3.

Do you feel like you could become more efficient over time? Some EMRs aren’t good but it may be an intrinsic issue which would probably not be resolved at an urgent care where you see 2-3x the pt as you are. 

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