Urgent Care Unscripted

Welcome back to Urgent Care Unscripted.

I'm Barbara Ronalter,
the director of operations

and business development for AFC
Urgent Care in West Haven.

And this is Mohamed Zaman.

I am the franchisee and owner of the AFC
Urgent Care in this haven.

No.

Today, we are here to talk about

the most common questions that I hear
from the patients at our clinic.

So I'll start with the first question.

Do I need an appointment
or do you accept walk-ins.

So both are okay
at our urgent care clinic?

Thankfully.

But, if you do, do make an appointment
that just saves.

You know, sometimes

that's some time you can complete
some of the paperwork online

and upload the documents, and your visit
will be more efficient, a little faster.

Typically, we see more people doing it,
making the appointment ahead of time.

But both.

Yeah, absolutely.

Next question we have is
do you have onsite

laboratory services
and what tests can you perform.

So this is, a broad question.

So, yes, we do have a few tests
that we can perform on site.

Some of those tests include Covid,
RSV, flu, strep.

Urine analysis is to check your urine.

We can do, glucose check.

And I feel like I'm missing
one strep test as well.

And mono. Oh. Need to check your iron.

So those are a few of the tests
that we can do within the clinic.

That means you're going to come
in, you're going to get tested,

and we'll get you the results
within 15 20 minutes.

Now, the other tests that we can do

is everything else
that gets sent to the laboratory.

So within our clinic, we draw blood.

We can do, other like STD testing.

So vaginal swabs and urine tests, and
we can send those to the lab for testing.

Those results typically take
about 48 hours to come back.

Some tests can take a little bit longer.

Some tests are faster.

Definitely
call us to find out the timeline.

We can definitely tell you that
ahead of time if you have any questions.

But we can do all of those tests and
we'll get the results as soon as possible.

Amazing.

So those are about the common questions
about test.

We often also hear from the patients
are you and what are your

operating hours
and what are your hours for that weekend.

So guys we are open seven days a week
and typically on weekdays we open 8 to 8.

Simple,

8 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

weekends we are open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

and even for major, most of the major
holidays, we typically try to stay open.

There are just a handful of exceptions.

Other than that, we are open
more or less the year round.

Yep. Absolutely.

And you can always call

and if you have any questions about that,
you can call us to find out if are open.

You can check Google.

We update our hours on there religiously.

So if you are having a question
about a holiday you can check there.

And you can also check our website
for the hours.

Next question that we have is

what measures are in place to ensure
patient privacy and confidentiality?

We talked a little bit about this
in one of the previous episodes.

So one of the big things that we do is
we try to do all of our check ins online.

So patients are able
to do all of their paperwork

and information right on their phones.

That way there is no paper mix up.

There's no, you know, information
that gets Miss Mis written.

I think a lot of times

when patients are writing on a piece
of paper, it's really easy for our staff

to not be able to read the handwriting
and put the wrong date of birth.

Then that can get mixed up
with a different patient.

So we try to make sure that that's
being done.

Online, all of our services
online are secured and HIPAA compliant.

So we know that there's no information
that's going to get mixed up

or, get, mixed with other patients.

Thank you. Bye, Brad.

And we often hear from patients
what is the typical

wait time, for a patient.

So this is quite important for us.

I know for most of the patients, it's
not all patients visiting urgent care.

In general, this is a very important and,

something that we prioritize
to make sure that is as low as possible.

But typically, patients are coming in
and going out between 50

to 45 minutes, depending upon
what kind of service.

And so you get the service you need,

but it varies between 50 to 45.

Yeah, absolutely. That's door to door.

That means you come in and you get out
within 45 minutes typically.

And I think we mentioned this
in a previous episode as well.

So if you schedule online, that tends

to keep your wait time
in the waiting room, faster.

So you don't have to wait as long.

Next question we have
is do we offer extra services

and who interprets the results?

That's a really good question.

So yes, we do have extra on site.

We have extra at least five days

a week and most Saturdays as well.

We have, great X-ray tags.

They are amazing.

You'll get to meet them right
when you come into the clinic.

They're usually at the front desk
and the results get, preliminary.

Preliminary read by our providers
that are on site,

and we get a final confirmation
read from a radiologist

that is working remotely
that really comes back,

that comes back
pretty fast within 30 minutes or so.

And you have the option to either way at
the clinic for those results to come back.

Or you can go home
and we'll call you with the results.

And then oftentimes
we also hear from patients,

who am I gonna be seen by all
who is treating me?

So the answer to
the question is quite simple.

We have a physician
who also happens to be in the ICU,

and you could be seen
by the physician themselves,

or you could be seen
by our physician assistant,

or you could be seen by a nurse
practitioner in any of those situations,

we ensure that the provider
that's treating you

has significant and urgent care
related experience.

That's a promise from us.

And, let's take that urgent care to,
all of our patients. Yep.

Can we manage chronic conditions
or refill medications in our office?

The answer is yes.

We typically, like we mentioned
in another episode, we can do preventative

care at the urgent care,
we are able to do refills on medications.

We do recommend that
you seek a primary care physician,

just to continue that, care and continue
that, medication.

But we can do refills
and we can, manage a short term

for chronic medicate,
chronic conditions, short term.

And,

oftentimes, there are a lot of families
around, West Haven.

It's a beautiful community.

And the parents would like to know that
we can treat the kids, babies and infants.

Do we have pediatricians on site?

So yes, we we are trained,
the providers are trained to see patients.

Six months at, all the way.

But yes, we do not have a pediatrician.

Our providers are deeply trained
to take care of anyone.

Six months.

Yep. Absolutely.

And, the next question that we have is,
do you provide

vaccinations and immunizations?

So the answer is yes and no.

Unfortunately, most insurance companies,

do not cover vaccines in an urgent care.

They do like to go to your primary care
doctor or pharmacy to get that done.

But on the other side, we we do have
those vaccines within our office.

we can definitely provide that to you

at a self-pay rate,
which is we usually have our pricing.

It's really competitive and really good
if you are, if you need to go that route.

We also offer them
for our immigration patients.

So if you're coming in for an immigration
physical and need a vaccine,

we can definitely get that for you again
at a discounted rate

So the next question is do you provide
follow up

care or referrals to the specialist
if needed?

Yes, we do.

So if you're seen by and or by us
and you need a specialist, we do give you

we will give you a referral
for a specialist to be seen.

That referral could be on paper,

but we also fax
that over to the specialist

so they can call you and
schedule that appointment.

And one

question is like, patients want to provide
feedback.

Patients actually want us to, improve.

How do we how do you provide
how can I provide feedback to the clinic?

And what happens once
they have provided feedback.

So the best way to provide feedback
nowadays is through Google reviews.

Obviously you can call
and tell us about your experience.

You can give us advice, suggestions.

That's always welcome.

But overwhelming number of feedback.

So, you know,
we take every interview very seriously.

And as you will, notice on our review
or any urgent care review,

there is a common thread there
in terms of patient's expectations,

which we then take seriously
and try to implement.

Cleanliness is a big expectation.

Time to, how long is it taken for?

Your visit is a big expectation.

How am I being treated
or addressed at the clinic?

Come friendly are are the staff and, team
members is also being expectation.

All of those.

We are very strict
and try to continuously improve.

On the other hand,

billing concerns and questions about cost
is also a concern for patients.

We take that also.

And I think I believe personally
that communication

is the key when this kind of cancer
that does not arise every day,

we have seen so far in just about one
year, 10,000 plus patient visits,

and there are a handful of situations
where we have seen this happen.

Communication was the key to solving
those issues and addressing the patients

so that those patients
continue to come to us and they treat it.

So so that's how we, typically
address that feedback, some,

questions.

Yeah, absolutely. And it makes us better.

That's we want to improve. Right.

Nobody's perfect.

And feedback
just helps us further next patient.

And we appreciate that. We appreciate it
very much.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

That was it for our questions.

If you do have more questions
that you want us to answer later on,

maybe next season, you can email us at,
if, sorry.

West Haven teams at AFC Urgent care.com.

We'll put it in.

We'll put the email for you in the video
so you can email us

a thank you from,
Mohamed and Barbara for watching results.

And we welcome
you to, watch our service again in future.

This is as you know, it's interesting
when I run out or thank you so much

for joining us this season,
and we look forward to coming back.

Thank you, thank you.