Hospital Systems Continue to Jump on the Urgent Care Bandwagon

Whether it’s due to changes in the healthcare insurance landscape, the habits of millennials, or just plain societal evolution, the public continues to recognize urgent care as a viable option more every year—reflected in the increasing number of centers around the country (up 10% since 2015, according to the Urgent Care Association of America). Hospitals were a little late to the party, but are making up for lost time by continuing to open their own urgent care centers at a brisk pace. As detailed in The Morning Call in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley region, Lehigh Valley Health Network and St. Luke’s University Health Network are among them. They’ve each added clinics throughout the region—with plans to keep opening more to keep pace with demand. St. Luke’s says focusing more effort on the walk-in model is bringing new patients not only into its urgent care centers, but into its network as a whole. Keep an eye out for the April issue of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, which will feature an article about how hospitals venturing into urgent care can avoid the mistakes of those who came before.