Michael Boyle, MD, a regional director of ECI Healthcare Partners, discusses his experiences with emergency medicine and urgent care.
Question: What led you to specialize in emergency medicine and urgent care?
Dr. Michael Boyle: I have always been interested in emergency medicine, starting as an EMT in 1978 and volunteering for several years in a local fire department. In 1994, I developed an occupational medicine program and fast track that started my interest in urgent care. I started managing urgent care programs, along with emergency departments, in 2008. In 2011, my MBA study began with a focus on healthcare. It was then that I decided to author the text, The Healthcare Executive's Guide to Urgent Care Centers and Freestanding EDs, published by Healthleaders Media in 2012. I still practice clinically — and love to! — in the emergency department and urgent care.
Q: How does your experience as a physician inform your administrative management role at ECI Healthcare Partners?
MB: Clinical practice helps me stay in touch with the "trenches" and provides credibility among the fellow physicians that I manage. It also gives me a first-hand look at challenges and flow issues related to the emergency department and hospital that are invaluable to my administrative duties.
Q: What are the biggest challenges facing emergency medicine and urgent care today?
MB: The biggest challenge for emergency medicine is hospital flow related to admitted patient boarding in the emergency room. This reduces our ability to care for other patients, resulting in prolonged waits, poor patient satisfaction and reduced potential income to the practice. Urgent care has the challenge of being a new specialty, and needs to have room at the table among other specialties. It is the most cost effective alternative for minor episodic illness and injury, which makes it an ideal option for population health. There has been a significant increase in orthopedic urgent care in several larger cities, opening up a new business model for many orthopedic practices. The greatest economic challenge for urgent care will be the impact of telemedicine and potential reduced volume related to these services
Learn more from Dr. Boyle at the 15th Annual Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference + The Future of Spine in June 2017! Click here for more information.
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