New UCA Benchmarking Report Paints a Picture of a Booming Urgent Care Industry

The latest Benchmarking Report from the Urgent Care Association shows 8% growth in the urgent care industry over 2017, continuing an unbroken record of year-over-year growth and confirming that more people than ever are hungry for on-demand, affordable care. It also indicates that urgent care operations have been successful in adapting their offerings to fit the evolving needs of the patient population—and doing so with increasing efficiency, at that. The 2018 Benchmarking Report notes that over 70% of patients visiting urgent care wait less than 20 minutes to see a provider—and almost 94% wait less than 30 minutes. They’re in and out of the building in less than an hour 85% of the time. One more critical piece of data: Only 2% of patients who visit an urgent care center have to be diverted to the emergency room, meaning that 98% of patients have come to the right place. They’re getting it when it comes to understanding the expanse of urgent care services. Merchant Medicine collaborated with UCA on the report, which also sorts the largest urgent care organizations by ownership type, provides a comprehensive analysis of urgent care operators, and includes data on urgent care saturation by core-based statistical area. Learn more about the report, or get your hands on a copy, here. JUCM is the official publication of the Urgent care Association.