Emergency and Urgent Care Centers: The Key Drivers and How They Impact Healthcare Providers

TThe emergence of COVID-19 has given rise to innovative strategies, technologies, processes and contingency plans—to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, optimize efficiencies and ultimately drive better outcomes. From a hospital-based healthcare delivery model, there has been a paradigm shift to alternative models including hospital beyond walls and Urgent Care Centers to expand hospital capacity and deliver better care to the surging care needs. Amongst an array of other new innovations and strategies, Urgent Care Centers have recently gained utmost significance. Visits to Urgent Care Centers have drastically increased and it is critical that healthcare providers stay on top of the key drivers enabling the adoption of Urgent Care Centers. This blog captures the essence of three key drivers of Urgent Care Centers and why care providers need to adapt to the changing landscape.
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Three Key Drivers

Access

Reduced access to primary care is leading patients to pursue more immediate sites of service. This problem will likely worsen in the future as the U.S is projected to need approximately 52,000 additional primary care Physicians by 2025 to meet growing demand.
As primry care access has become more limited, patients (particularly younger ones) are increasingly comfortable seeking care in different settings, obscuring the traditional primary care physician-patient relationship.
Long waits in Emergency Rooms (ERs) are leading more patients to Urgent Care Centers for lower-acuity care.

Cost

Busy healthcare patients are increasingly demanding greater convenience. About one in five patients report seeking care at an Urgent Care Center because they thought it would take less time to be seen and treated.
Urgent Care Centers have focused on convenience-oriented patients by offering online appointment reservations, publishing clinic wait times, and integrating more effectively with mobile technology.
Unlike traditional healthcare providers, Urgent Care Centers emphasize their appeal through direct-to-consumer marketing – running radio, Instagram, Facebook, and bus advertisements in local communities – prior to opening new locations.

Convenience

Urgent Care Centers provide a lower-cost alternative to Emergency Room. According to the claims data from a major U.S insurance provider, the average cost of an Emergency Room visit is $2.259 versus $176 for an Urgent Care Center visit.
Higher deductibles have led to customer price sensitivity and a desire for transparency, which Urgent Care Centers offer. The average deductible for employer-sponsored health insurance plans rose from $303 to $1,505 between 2006 and 2020.
Insurance companies have implemented incentives for patients within their networks to visit Urgent Care Centers. A major insurance provider charges patients one-fourth the copay for a visit to an Urgent Care Centers versus a visit to an Emergency Room.

Also Read:

Healthcare Cloud Trends that Drive Patient Engagement Solutions

5 Strategies to Improve Patient Volume during COVID-19

Population Health Management: Shifting Towards Value-based Healthcare

Top Strategies to Drive Patient Access to Care during COVID-19

The Future of the Hospital: Hospital beyond Walls

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