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The gas-station convenience store operator QuikTrip Corp. has sold off its 9 MedWise urgent care centers, according to Convenience Store News, effectively exiting the healthcare market. The Saint Francis Health System in Oklahoma has acquired the MedWise centers and will operate them within the health system’s network starting in June, retaining the current staff. While the centers earned Urgent Care Association (UCA) accreditation, growth stalled due to the lack of a hospital network and little to no ramp up of clinical scale. The acquisition reflects the current market momentum toward established health systems operating urgent cares, whether on their own or through partnerships.
This is no place for snacks: QuikTrip opened its first urgent care in 2020 with plans to expand to as many as 15 centers in Oklahoma—stand-alone clinics that would not be co-located with any of its gas station convenience stores. Lou Ellen Horwitz, who was at the time the CEO of UCA, expressed some skepticism of the venture, noting that urgent care is worlds different than convenient store operations, although there is some limited overlap between the business models, such as site selection and reliance on walk-in, consumer-driven demand. The QuikTrip exit is further evidence that urgent care is a truly unique business, and the surge in demand that came alongside the COVID pandemic was not a sustainable expectation of visit volume.