UCA: More Urgent Care Centers Are Seeing More Patients in Less Time

The Urgent Care Association’s annual Benchmarking Report reveals these are boom times for the urgent care industry. The number of centers in the U.S. is up 10% from the previous year (to 7,357); 96% of urgent care centers saw more patients in 2015 than in 2014; and 92% of centers kept wait times to ≤30 minutes. Best of all, nine out of 10 centers expect continued growth, with many also saying they’re extending the services they offer (eg, physical therapy, travel medicine, drug dispensing, telemedicine, and concussion screenings). The most common diagnoses at urgent care centers in 2015 were acute upper respiratory infection, acute sinusitis, acute pharyngitis, cough, and acute bronchitis. Steve Sellars, president of the UCA’s Board of Directors, says the good news is a sign of the times. “Coordinated patient care is becoming more essential in order to best care for patients, and the report illustrates that the industry is responding,” Sellars explains. “At the same time, patients truly understand that urgent care serves a vital role in the healthcare mix, and know how to best utilize it to keep themselves and their families healthy.”