Is Urgent Care Flying Under the Radar as COVID-19 Testing Becomes More Accessible?

As large, national retail chains announce they’re ready to test anyone concerned they could have been exposed to COVID-19, a glaring question arises: Why is there no mention of urgent care? One reason is that drive-up testing centers, often staged in the store’s parking lot, are supported by the federal government and state health departments and offer testing at no cost to the customer. Lacking that funding, an urgent care operator would be hard pressed to compete by offering to test patients while charging even a modest fee. The benefit to the patient who does choose to be tested in an urgent care setting would be that they’d likely receive solid advice on homecare from a physician or advanced-practice provider who is a part of their community; grocery store operations are staffed with nurses from the state health department and the retail drugstore testing centers have pharmacists overseeing patient self-tests. With many urgent care operations are hurting for patient visits right now, there’s clearly an opportunity to help. Consider reaching out to local media to let them know patients can receive a COVID-19 test from the same physicians who do their children’s sports physicals, with advice on follow-up care, to boot.