It’s not uncommon for the uninitiated to view urgent care as just the first, most convenient stop in what may be a two- or three-stop odyssey to resolve an immediate healthcare need. That could take all day and wind up being very expensive.
Those in the know—certainly urgent care providers, operators, and experienced patients—understand that a trip to the urgent care center is often all a patient needs to get the right level of care for what ails them.
And it will be efficient and less expensive than multiple stops for the same complaint (say, from a retail clinic to the primary care provider to the otolaryngologist) or just one visit to the emergency room. Even the savviest healthcare consumer might be surprised at how few urgent care encounters require referral to a specialist, however—and that number is shrinking over time.
See the graph below for insights drawn from JUCM’s own proprietary research.
