One Year In, Latino-focused Clinic Doubles in Size

Identifying and providing care for an underserved population may hold untold benefits for urgent care operators. In the case of Cliníca Médicos in Chattanooga, TN, that meant focusing on Spanish-speaking residents. Now the clinic is about to double in size just one year after opening its doors. The original mission was to offer healthcare services to area Latinos, regardless of insurance status. Patient volume has risen every month since, to the point that the clinic now sees 25–30 patients per day and needs to expand. All but one of the clinic’s 15 staff members are fluent in both English and Spanish, making it a comfortable point-of-entry that might not exist otherwise for some patients. Cliníca Médicos has also built its base by offering occupational medicine services to area businesses that employee large numbers of Spanish-speaking workers and forging ties with area health systems.