A new report from the University of Michigan found 60% of people aged 50 to 80 have visited an urgent care (UC) clinic or a retail store, workplace, or mobile health clinic setting within the past 2 years. The university’s National Poll on Healthy Aging analysis notes that urgent care clinics were the top choice among these alternative sites of care: 47% of respondents say they have accessed UC at least once, and 23% visited more than once. More than 1 in 4 older adults (28%) have visited a retail health clinic in the past 2 years, but fewer visited a worksite clinic (9%) or a mobile clinic (5%). The top reason to visit an alternative site of care was to avoid the emergency department (44%).
Even better: Three-fourths of consumers who went to a UC, retail or workplace clinic say they would go again in the next 2 years. For overall convenience, 43% say any of the alternative sites of care was better than visiting a primary care provider.
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