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Adding a new urgent care rooftop represents a significant investment by a health system. At the same time, every new urgent care ideally opens up a reliable referral stream for the institution’s other services to boost patient volume. This has been the prevailing model for health systems, but some markets are now witnessing a shift toward joint ventures and acquisitions rather than new builds, according to a report in Modern Healthcare. Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc, President of Urgent Care Consultants and Senior Editor of JUCM, says that at least 430 rooftops opened in new locations in the first 6 months of 2025, and 40% are affiliated with health systems, indicating that industry growth is being driven by larger institutions. Some of the attraction of the urgent model is its high efficiency, however, urgent operations still need a strategic approach to manage potential headwinds, such as labor and rising supply costs, which are universal across all types of provider expansion.
Variables for growth: The future undoubtedly will include a mix of urgent care new builds, acquisitions, and joint ventures. Market dynamics will be highly individualized, however, especially if Medicaid enrollment drops as predicted and more rural hospitals are forced to shut their doors under financial pressures. Look in the JUCM archive to see which organizations lead the industry by number of urgent care locations in JUCM’s most recent Urgent Care Top 100.