Merchant Medicine: Privately Owned Urgent Care Operators Are Outpacing Hospitals

Hospital-owned urgent care centers continue to be a growing segment of the marketplace—but their growth is still not on pace with privately owned companies, especially larger entities like MedExpress, CityMD, and others, according to a new report from Merchant Medicine. In Calm Before the Storm?, CEO Tom Charland points out that industry growth last year was led by “top independent operators” who grew 11% in 2017. Hospitals are opening more centers, too, just not as aggressively. Among the 10 largest independent operators on Merchant Medicine’s list, the fastest growers were Fast Pace (48.7% growth over the previous year), CityMD/Premier Care (26.5%), and MedExpress (23.2%).