Urgent Care’s Top Hospital-Affiliated Urgent Care Operators—by Number of Locations

The makeup of the urgent care industry has changed considerably since its inception in the 1970s. At the time, it was a radical idea to see patients with nonemergent complaints on a walk-in basis. Certainly hospitals wanted no part of it; that’s what they had emergency rooms for. Rather, the UC industry’s founders tended to be in private or small group practices, but unsatisfied with how they were practicing.

Over the decades that followed, it became clear that offering patients the chance to see a top-notch healthcare provider whenever the need arose was not just convenient for them—it could also be quite profitable for the operator. Now health and hospital systems took note, and then some.

Today’s ownership structures reflect that delayed acceptance. There are still some urgent care businesses owned by entrepreneurial healthcare providers, but many are now part of systems operated by or affiliated with hospital and healthcare systems.

Last  month, we shared with you a list of the largest “private” urgent care operators in the country, by number of locations. In this issue, we bring you an accounting of the largest urgent care operators affiliated with hospitals and health systems, according to April 2023 data from National UC Realty.