A regional health system was running its urgent care network at a loss and struggling to meet patient demand. Rather than retreat, it partnered to rebuild the service line around a retail-style operating playbook attracting new patients to the system, adding access, creating significant revenue, growing primary care and turning urgent care into a growth engine. All under the health system brand.
The results: Attracting new patients to the health system, including to their primary care and specialty practices, the network expanded to more than 30 centers, with the first 20 opening in under 24 months. Multiple access points were developed across the market faster and at a lower cost than one freestanding ED, for example. Centers now sustain more than 15% service line profitability alongside an 83-plus Net Promoter Score, 4.7+ Google ratings and roughly 50-minute total visit times.
The strategic payoff reaches well beyond the service line. Thirty percent of urgent care patients were brand new to the health system and integrate into their specialty networks for follow on care. Patient volumes run 1.4x that of competitors. As a primary care growth engine, and with more than 25% of American adults lacking primary care, urgent care is increasingly where new patients enter and where brand loyalty begins
This whitepaper details:
- The operating model that delivers the most new patients, with over 15% service line profitability with a partner focused on the highest quality of care
- Why a market wide network-based model outperforms standalone ED or hybrid builds on speed to market, access and capital efficiency
- How urgent care converts first-time visits into lasting system patients, all under the health system’s brand and EHR