More Good News/Bad News for Urgent Care on the Millennial Market

A new study by FAIR Health says too many busy millennials (defined by Pew Research as those who turned ages 15–34 in 2015) turn to WebMD or “Dr. Google” instead of checking in with a physician when they need medical care. While that’s bad news for providers in every setting—not to mention those patients—the good news for urgent care is that when they do commit to an in-person visit, they are more likely to choose urgent care than a traditional primary care office. Convenience was found to be the biggest draw. William Curry, MD of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, says many patients in that age group can get away with it for a while because they tend to relatively healthy, on average. The downside, of course, is that information found randomly on the internet can sometimes be sketchy, at best.