Does Urgent Care Require 7-Day Operations?

Does Urgent Care Require 7-Day Operations?

While patients and payers may expect urgent care to be available 7-days a week, approximately 20% of urgent care centers are closed on Saturdays, and approximately 30% are closed on Sundays, according to a February 2025 analysis of 14,301 centers by National Urgent Care Realty and Urgent Care Consultants. Of the centers open 7 days a week, 24% open and close at the same time every day.  Otherwise, centers that are open weekends are likely …

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Retail Clinic Rooftops Retreat From 2023 Peak

Retail Clinic Rooftops Retreat From 2023 Peak

  Between May, 20231 and December, 2024, the number of retail-host clinics in the United States fell 21.7% from 1,750 to 1,370, according to data from National UC Realty. Not only did CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart announce significant clinic closures in 2024, there has been little to no growth among the remaining retail clinic operators.  The top 5 retail hosts make up 95% of in-store clinics nationally and only 2% of total clinics are in independent …

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Retail Clinic Rooftops Retreat from 2023 Peak

Retail Clinic Rooftops Retreat from 2023 Peak

Between May, 20231 and December, 2024, the number of retail-host clinics in the United States fell 21.7% from 1,750 to 1,370, according to data from National UC Realty. Not only did CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart announce significant clinic closures in 2024, there has been little to no growth among the remaining retail clinic operators.  The top 5 retail hosts make up 95% of in-store clinics nationally and only 2% of total clinics are in independent …

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Provider Compensation Increasing Since 2022

Provider Compensation Increasing Since 2022

By comparing 2022 and 2024 hourly compensation data from the Urgent Care Association (UCA) Clinician Compensation Benchmarking Report, data shows that there has been a 15% increase in nurse practitioner (NP) and physician assistant (PA) pay. Meanwhile, there was an average 19% increase in physician (MD and DO) pay.1 In 2024, the median reported hourly base compensation (excluding bonuses and incentives) showed an increase compared to 2022 rates across all clinician types. This rise likely …

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Laceration Repairs Decline in Urgent Care

Laceration Repairs Decline in Urgent Care

The percentage of urgent care visits involving a laceration procedure increased slightly from 0.75% in 2023 to 0.76% year-to-date in 2024, which is on-par with 2018 levels, according to Experity EMR analysis of more than 93.8 million urgent care visits, as of October 6, 2024. Over the past 15 years, the percentage of patients presenting with a laceration has gradually declined, attributed to a number of factors—chief among them being “case rate” reimbursement. Case rate …

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Size and Ownership of U.S. Urgent Care Centers

Size and Ownership of U.S. Urgent Care Centers

As of September, 2024, there are a total of 14,245 urgent care centers in the United States, according to National Urgent Care Realty data. The charts above break down the footprint of urgent care centers by hospital affiliation, number of locations per operator, ages seen, and setting. From the data: 96% of urgent care centers treat all ages, whereas 4% specialize exclusively on pediatric populations 39% of urgent care centers are affiliated with a hospital …

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Few Misused Rx Drugs Prescribed in Urgent Care

Few Misused Rx Drugs Prescribed in Urgent Care

According to the United States Department of Justice, the most common prescription drugs that are misused fall into 1 of 3 categories: opioid pain relievers/narcotics; depressants; and stimulants. Experity EMR data encapsulating 17,526,083 prescriptions written at 3,037 urgent care centers from January 1 to August 20, 2024, shows the vast majority of urgent care centers do not prescribe these medications at all, and of those that do, these medications represent a very small percentage of …

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NPS Predicts Success in UC

NPS Predicts Success in UC

The net promoter score (NPS) is a customer experience metric devised by business researcher Fred Reichheld, MBA, which measures how likely customers are to recommend a product or service on a scale of 0-10. His 2006 book, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth, describes NPS as the most predictive metric of a company’s future success. As a benchmark, NPS scores are reported on the world’s leading brands. A review of more than …

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Patient Arrival Times In Urgent Care

Patient Arrival Times In Urgent Care

The table above shows the percentage of patients within an average day who arrived during each hour of operations, based on more than 13,000,000 patient encounters from January 1 to March 31, 2024, recorded in the Experity EMR. A patient arriving anywhere between 7:00AM and 7:59AM, for example, is categorized as arriving during the 7:00AM hour.  This data is useful in determining staffing levels and opening hours. If the number of patient arrivals per hour …

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Categorization of Codes Most Frequently Used in Urgent Care

Categorization of Codes Most Frequently Used in Urgent Care

International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes—maintained by the World Health Organization and published in the United States by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—standardize the categorization and reporting of patient diagnoses. Currently, U.S. healthcare operators use the ICD-10 edition. The analysis below examines 2023 urgent care visits logged by users of Experity’s electronic medical record, revealing that 28,686 diagnosis codes were documented in urgent care patient medical records.    While it’s logical to conclude …

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