HIPAA forms are available for download here.

Urgent care physicians should be able to remove foreign bodies from the eye. The physician should attempt to remove the foreign body; if unsuccessful then he/she should refer the patient to an ophthalmologist or the ED. Foreign bodies penetrating into the eye (deeply embedded) is beyond the scope of the Urgent Care physician and need to be referred to an ophthalmologist or the ED. Rust rings need to be taken care of by an ophthalmologist.

The average patient-per-hour ratio for Urgent Care physicians is 4.5 patients per hour. This will vary on the severity or acuity of the patient's conditions, however it is a reasonable goal. Criteria are difficult to assess: if a center implements Electronic Medical Records (EMR) with templates and has protocols in place, the number can go up to approximately six to eight patients per hour.

Physician Quality Reporting Initiative is a pay-for-reporting program that uses measures to gauge the level of care provided by physicians to Medicare patients. Physicians who meet or exceed the minimum reporting standards may be eligible for a 1.5% bonus (subject to cap). There are 119 PQRI quality measures as determined by the Centers for Medicaid Services (CMS). The following excerpt from the CMS website outlines the measure reporting process:

If there are not more than three quality measures applicable to the services provided by the eligible professional, then each measure must be reported for at least 80% of the cases in which the measure was reportable.

If there are four or more quality measures applicable to the services provided by the eligible professional, then at least three measures, selected by the eligible professional, must be reported for at least 80% of the cases in which each measure was reportable.

For complete information regarding PQRI guidelines, setup and usage, refer to the CMS web site. Also, it is strongly recommended that first-time users refer to the “PQRI Tool Kit.”

According to a 2006 AMGA Physician Compensation Survey, the average salary for an Urgent Care physician ranges from $155,438 to $208,335.