Urgent Care Industry Going Gangbusters!

Mike Gehrt | April 24, 2018

Americans continue to seek - and expect - convenience and value in all our consumer interactions, and healthcare is no longer an exception. Rather than wait in long lines at an ER, or make appointments during work hours with a traditional doctor's office, we are increasingly visiting urgent care facilities instead.

As a result, the urgent care industry continues to grow rapidly. Already worth $18 billion, urgent care is projected to grow by an additional 6% in 2018. The Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) estimates there are over 7,600 urgent care clinics in the United States, compared to 6,400 in 2014. Another recent study showed that between 2007-2016, utilization of urgent care centers grew seven times as fast as that of traditional emergency rooms.

Americans are choosing convenient, relatively inexpensive urgent care instead of the traditional doctor's office or the hospital emergency room. As urgent care has grown, visits to primary care physicians decreased by 12% between 2012 and 2016, and another study indicates that in communities with an urgent care facility, visits to the emergency room declined by 30%.

Amazon.com has changed expectations in the retail industry of what constitutes value and convenience, and urgent care is changing those expectations in the healthcare field. Other things being equal, people will choose convenience and value, so we expect this trend towards urgent care to continue.

about F.C. Dadson:

Here at F.C. Dadson, we are strong supporters of the urgent care industry, and proud members of the UCAOA. We have extensive experience managing clinic buildouts and supplying retail fixtures to successful, growth-oriented urgent care companies. We also draw on forty years of experience creating custom cabinets and other millwork, and over ten years as the leading supplier of retail buildout services to the franchise industry.