Urgent Care Leadership

Send us a textDr. Jeannie Kenkare is President of Yale New Haven Health Urgent Care and a candidate for the Board of Directors for the Urgent Care Association.

Send us a textRandy Johansen is the former CEO and current Advisor to the CEO at American Family Care, and a candidate for the Board of Directors at the Urgent Care Association.

Send us a textAmy Wright is the Director of Urgent Care, Telehealth and Access at Jefferson Health, and a candidate for the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association

Send us a textCatherine Grant is Founder and CEO of ExperCARE and a candidate for the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association.

Send us a textApril Gillam is the head of Industry Strategy and Consulting at Solv, an urgent care investor, and a candidate for the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association. 

Send us a textDr. Cassandra Donnelly is a Regional Medical Director at Wellstreet Urgent Care and a candidate for the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association.

Send us a textDr. Alicia Tezel is a pediatrician with Little Spurs Pediatric Urgent Care and a candidate for the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association.

Send us a textJanae Walsh is a family nurse practitioner at Davam Urgent Care and a candidate for the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association.

Send us a textDr. Shelley Janssen is the Chief Medical Officer at Doctors Care in South Carolina, and a candidate for the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association.

Send us a textJoin me and UCA's Advocacy Manager, Kristin Rastatter, as we talk with Kelli L'Heureux from Resilient Advocacy in Sacramento, California.  Kelli's firm works with the California Urgent Care Association on their legislative and regulatory efforts in the state, but their learnings have applicability for everyone trying to positively influence how Urgent Cares are treated in any state.

Send us a textDr. Ellis is the chair of the Government Affairs Committee of the California Urgent Care Association (CalUCA) and leads state efforts to influence legislation and regulation.  Learn how he got started, what the key issues are, what they've learned along the way, and his vision of what the future holds for Urgent Care advocacy.2024 Regional Conferences:Northeast Regional Urgent Care Association (September): https://neruca.org/South East Regional Urgent Care Association (October): https://seruca.org/California (Western) Urgent Care Association (November): https://www.caluca.org/

Send us a textDr. Halpert is the co-chair of the Government Affairs Committee of the Northeast Regional Urgent Care Association (NERUCA) and has over a decade of experience influencing state legislation and regulation.  Learn how this got started, meet the key players, discover what they've learned along the way, and his vision of what the future holds for Urgent Care advocacy.2024 Regional Conferences:Northeast Regional Urgent Care Association (September): https://neruca.org/South East Regional Urgent Care Association (October): https://seruca.org/California (Western) Urgent Care Association (November): https://www.caluca.org/

UCA's Advocacy efforts recently achieved a milestone - inclusion of Urgent Care in the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule publication issued by CMS.  This episode goes into more details about what that means, why it's important, what happens next, and when those efforts might directly impact Urgent Care centers.  Guests are Eric Zimmerman from McDermott+ and Kristin Rastatter of the Urgent Care Association.Links mentioned:https://urgentcareassociation.org/uc-advocacy/https://urgentcareassociation.org/about/the-people-behind-uca/kristin-rastatter/

This episode goes into the details of what it takes to make things happen in state legislation and regulations, through the experience of Christopher Nugent, MBA, CRA, RT(R)(CT).  Chris has been instrumental in the work of UCA member coalitions who are advocating state by state to ensure a pathway exists for limited scope x-ray licensure in all states.  We discuss the victories and how they were won, which states are up next,  what you need to know before you undertake this work in your state, and why it's worth doing.  Advocacy works!

Brandon Robertson is the Founder and CEO of UCP Merchant Medicine and Intellivisit Solutions and is a candidate for the Urgent Care Association Board of Directors in 2024.

Stephanie Bond is the Practice Administrator at Intermountain Health and a candidate for the Urgent Care Association Board of Directors in 2024.

Boyd Faust is the Chief Strategy Officer at GoHealth and a candidate for the Urgent Care Association Board of Directors in 2024.

Derek Newell is the Chief Executive Officer of NextCare  and is a candidate for the Urgent Care Association Board of Directors in 2024.

Rachel Sossoman is the President and CEO of Mercy Urgent Care and Occupational Medicine and is a candidate for the Urgent Care Association Board of Directors in 2024.

Dr. Jeff Schor is the founder and former CEO of PM Pediatrics and a candidate for the Board of Directors for the Urgent Care Association in 2024.

Eric Zimmerman leads UCA's lobbying team at McDermott+ in Washington, D.C.  McDermott+ serves the health industry exclusively, and their team of lawyers, physicians, policy professionals, data analysts and Capitol Hill/government agency veterans brings robust expertise to UCA's Advocacy efforts.Eric Zimmerman joins UCA CEO Lou Ellen Horwitz to dive into the current state of UCA's efforts to elaborate on the "why" of our strategies and tactics, "how" things get done in Congress and with agencies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and "when" we might see some impacts for Urgent Care.

Selena and Lou Ellen discuss UCA's advocacy strategy and tactics:  how we got here, what progress we've made, lessons learned and insights gained, and what everyone who works in urgent care (or just loves and believes in it) can be doing to engage with legislators and regulators to make sure we'll always be here when our communities need us.

UCA Chief Executive Officer Lou Ellen Horwitz provides an update on Urgent Care Advocacy and the next steps, both as an organization and an industry.

Since the founding of the Urgent Care Association, it's been governed by a democratically elected Board of Directors.  So, every year, UCA members elect a new class of directors to the Board.  In the next few episodes of the podcast you are going to get to meet this year's election candidates.This episode's guest is Katina Holliday, Owner of Urgent Care at the Pointe and Executive Director at Holliday's Helping Hands.Election ballots are sent directly to individual members, and to the key contacts for our organizational members, starting March 21st.  To learn more about any of the candidates, visit UCA's website at urgentcareassociation.org, and you can meet them in person at The Urgent Care Convention in Las Vegas starting March 31st. 

Since the founding of the Urgent Care Association, it's been governed by a democratically elected Board of Directors.  So, every year, UCA members elect a new class of directors to the Board.  In the next few episodes of the podcast you are going to get to meet this year's election candidates.This episode's guest is Dr. Tracey Davidoff, Urgent Care physician at Baycare Urgent Care.Election ballots are sent directly to individual members, and to the key contacts for our organizational members, starting March 21st.  To learn more about any of the candidates, visit UCA's website at urgentcareassociation.org, and you can meet them in person at The Urgent Care Convention in Las Vegas starting March 31st.

Since the founding of the Urgent Care Association, it's been governed by a democratically elected Board of Directors.  So, every year, UCA members elect a new class of directors to the Board.  In the next few episodes of the podcast you are going to get to meet this year's election candidates.  This episode's guest is Suzanne Jackson, Chief Operating Officer at HCA Healthcare Physician Services Group.Election ballots are sent directly to individual members, and to the key contacts for our organizational members, starting March 21st.  To learn more about any of the candidates, visit UCA's website at urgentcareassociation.org, and you can meet them in person at The Urgent Care Convention in Las Vegas starting March 31st. 

Since the founding of the Urgent Care Association, it's been governed by a democratically elected Board of Directors.  So, every year, UCA members elect a new class of directors to the Board.  In the next few episodes of the podcast you are going to get to meet this year's election candidates.  This episode's guest is Danielle Bynum, Director of Operations of Physician Practice Management at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center.Election ballots are sent directly to individual members, and to the key contacts for our organizational members, starting March 21st.  To learn more about any of the candidates, visit UCA's website at urgentcareassociation.org, and you can meet them in person at The Urgent Care Convention in Las Vegas starting March 31st. 

Since the founding of the Urgent Care Association, it's been governed by a democratically elected Board of Directors.  So, every year, UCA members elect a new class of directors to the Board.  In the next few episodes of the podcast you are going to get to meet this year's election candidates.This episode's guest is Dr. Allury Arora-Lal, Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Urgent Care for Children.Election ballots are sent directly to individual members, and to the key contacts for our organizational members, starting March 21st.  To learn more about any of the candidates, visit UCA's website at urgentcareassociation.org, and you can meet them in person at The Urgent Care Convention in Las Vegas starting March 31st. 

Dr. Cassandra Donnelly talks about her personal journey shifting from Emergency and Disaster Medicine to Urgent Care, her path to leadership and why diversity work is not a trend, but good business.

Dr. Max Lebow is Medical Director of Reliant Immediate Care Medical Group and the President of the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association. Trained and board certified in emergency medicine and occupational medicine, he shares how he got to where he is, and provides advice for those starting out in Urgent Care.

Stan Blaylock has been CEO of Physicians Immediate Care for the last decade, shepherding the organization through growth and change in multiple markets.  Listen in as he shares his unique perspective - informed by his prior experience in pharmacy networks and as head of Walgreens Health Services - on where urgent care is and can be going.

Catherine Matthews came into urgent care from General Electric - and the background she brought with her strongly influenced how she runs her centers.   The way she rotates her team and "manages" each location really changed my mind about what models work well and are scaleable.   Hope you enjoy.

Dr. Aaron Bright is one of the most humble people I know - but his pride in the outcome his team's  ironclad dedication to quality is inspiring.   UCA has partnered with Aaron's company - Hippo Education - to bring the best of urgent care learning to everyone we know...it's that good.  Listen in to learn why as Dr. Joe Toscano and I interview Aaron together.

Suzanne has gone from CEO roles in large health systems into the deep end of urgent care – after a hard sell.  Her high-level perspective on how to lead across diverse geographies, the importance of model standardization, attracting/retaining talent and emerging technologies has lessons for us all.  

Lynne Rosen has grown and developed more successful companies than you - I almost guarantee it.  Hear how she earned her stripes, what she learned along the way, how she ended up in urgent care, and where she thinks it's going.  

 Premier Health has quietly but most certainly become known as the reigning expert in urgent care/health system partnerships.  Listen in as Steve shares his insights from 15+ years of building and developing some of the most successful relationships in the country.

If you want to know some of CityMD's original secrets to success, have a listen.  Warning: they aren't sexy, and they aren't easy - but they could be tremendously helpful to you.  

What does someone like Patrice Pash, who is renowned in our industry for her incredible operations acumen and industry expertise, consider the key characteristic of a great leader?  The answer might surprise you.   And yes, getting to hang out with her for this was awesome.  If you've ever seen her speak, you'll know what I mean.  Enjoy!

Some of the innate characteristics of the people drawn to urgent care as a profession served us well through the pandemic so far.  Shaun and I take a look at the past year, which organizations excelled vs. just survived (or not), what made the difference, and what we can all learn from it.