Marketplace

Staff shortages, COVID-19, supply-chain challenges…the list of obstacles facing urgent care operators is both long and increasingly longstanding. Those obstacles continue to be overcome all over the country, however, thanks to the flexibility, persistence, and resilience our industry is known for. Of the top 15 companies (by number of clinics) whose locations provide walk-in/on-demand care, 12 are urgent care operators; the other three are retail clinics. Among the UC entities are the following companies, each …

JUCM News readers know that spring—and now summer, officially—has been a hot season for mergers and acquisitions in the urgent care marketplace. Every week brings news of one deal after another. This week comes news that UrgentMED is buying Urgent Care 3D and its locations in Carlsbad, Rolling Hills Estates, Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange, and Long Beach, California. Once the deal is done, UrgentMED will have 43 locations across Southern California, including its first in …

The past few weeks have seen a lot of action on the merger and acquisition front in the urgent care marketplace. The latest deal to come to light brings together a well-established local chain (Texas MedClinic, whose 20 locations are highly visible in San Antonio and Austin) with a private equity-backed, multistate operator (Community Care Partners, whose 90-plus locations stretch across seven states from Washington to Louisiana under the BestMed, SouthStar Urgent Care, and Coastal …

Hot on the heels of news that Piedmont Urgent Care by Wellstreet is acquiring SmartCare Medical Group comes another development reflecting the ongoing robust growth in the urgent care industry: Next Level Urgent Care says it’s going to open 20 new locations throughout the remainder of 2022, including its first outside of Houston. That will nearly double its current location count (24). Just as significant in terms of urgent care’s standing as a distinct practice …

Piedmont Urgent Care by Wellstreet is beefing up its presence in Georgia by acquiring SmartCare Medical Group. The move will add 10 locations to Piedmont’s portfolio of 47 urgent care centers, including two communities where Piedmont had not had a presence previously, and 25 QuickCare locations. The company also operates numerous primary care and specialty practices. Piedmont has said there are no plans to reduce the existing workforce at any of the locations.

University of Florida Health has announced the opening of three 24-hour “hybrid” emergency-urgent care centers. The centers are staffed by board-certified emergency medicine providers and have many of the same capabilities as an emergency room, including advanced lab and multi-slice CT scanners. Patients are screened upon arrival to determine whether they require emergency or urgent care—with an estimated 70% of those patients able to be seen on the urgent care side at lower urgent care …

A pair of recently announced mergers may signal the advent of new trends in the urgent care marketplace. First, the joining of Xpress Wellness and Integrity Urgent Care, which puts 47 urgent care centers in rural Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas under a single corporate umbrella, reflects surging interest in providing services to residents outside of urban and suburban areas. At the same time, HCA is buying BetterMed and its 12 locations in central Virginia—further confirmation …

Rural areas of the United States have never been known for easy access to high-quality healthcare. There’s simply not enough incentive for health systems to plant roots where patients are few and far between, leaving residents to weigh whether a 2-hour car drive followed by a long wait in the emergency room is worth it for a sore throat or a laceration that may not even need stitches. The increased risk for poor outcomes is …

ICV Partners, a Miami-based investment firm with a history of targeting lower middle market companies in healthcare and other “service” industries, has acquired Urgent Care Group and announced plans to combine it with its portfolio company, Total Access Urgent Care. Urgent Care Group actually serves three brands covering 24 locations in the Wilmington, NC and Atlanta areas and throughout South Carolina. All together, they employ more than 400 urgent care professionals and see more than …

Rural areas of the United States have generally been underserved when it comes to healthcare for a long time. Many patients have to travel for hours to get reasonable access to much-needed care. That inconvenience has been exacerbated—badly—by the latest surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, according to an article newly published by The Wall Street Journal. The story notes situations in which patients are turned away or told to “come back in a couple …