Urgent Care Market Poised For Further Growth

1. The concept of urgent care began sometime in early 1970s with enterprising medical practitioners opening clinics to serve patients. This business peaked in the 80s before it witnessed somewhat of a decline. One of the reasons for decline could be people’s apprehensions as to the quality of medical treatment meted out to patients. But today, urgent care is a developing market. It is addressing the needs of tens of thousands of people who require episodic care at physicians’ after hours. It is no wonder this segment is witnessing good growth. According to a stay-at-home parent, “At physicians’ urgent care VA clinics are as good as primary care”. In a report released early this year, the vast majority of urgent care centers in the country are meeting the demands of increased patient load and also keeping the waiting times low. A doctor at Alexandria immediate care is of the opinion that the number of urgent care centers in the United States will continue to increase this year as well. A study has revealed that several urgent care clinics are expanding their scope of services to include travel medicine, immunizations, physical therapy, concussion screening, and more. So what is next for urgent care in the coming years? “We can expect more value addition in services”, says a healthcare professional. “Technological integration will propel higher growth”. Access to medical care after hours and on weekends is vital to Americans because of their lifestyles.

2. The market is saturated, but it augurs well for the public, because only those clinics that are genuinely good will survive. Here are certain facts and figures about urgent care centers that may be of interest to readers. There are a little over 7000 urgent care centers in the United States. Quite a few of them provide full-service urgent care including x-ray, labs, and extended hours. A good number of them report that patient visits are increasing. oAccording to a survey, the most common urgent care locations are: oShopping centers and strip malls oMedical offices oFreestanding buildings oMulti-use buildings At most centers, the waiting time for patients is 30 minutes or less. More than 90% of the urgent care centres work on all seven days in a week and are open for at least four hours a day. According to physicians, urgent care in VA will see a boom in activity at least in the midterm. This is in line with the rest of the country as large cities have the capacity to support 2 or 3 times the number of urgent care centres available today. Thank You