Study says urgent-care centers filling void

Urgent-care centers are more frequently becoming alternative sites for convenient and timely healthcare access, without the downside of interrupted care coordination, according to a qualitative study conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change.

Researchers affiliated with the National Institute for Health Care Reform looked at administrative data and conducted interviews in six locations—Detroit, Jacksonville, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco—and found that the number of urgent-care centers has grown significantly since the concept was first introduced in the 1980s. Today, there are nearly 9,000 of these facilities across the U.S. And while they traditionally had been independent, standalone operations, these days they may be part of a large urgent-care center chain or partnered with a hospital system or health insurer. Either way, the study found, they are filling a void left open by emergency departments that treat more serious episodes and primary-care clinics, which generally are closed in the evenings and on weekends.

Though questions remain about whether they reduce healthcare spending by preventing costly ER visits or whether they add to costs when people use them as their primary care—the urgent-care center executives and directors, hospital-based emergency department directors and health plan network managers that were interviewed agreed overall that urgent-care centers improve healthcare access without significantly interfering with care coordination.

One Jacksonville health plan respondent estimated that 30% of patients who go to the emergency department could receive care in a less acute and less expensive setting. If patients won't go to a primary-care doctor, the respondent said, then urgent-care centers may be the next best option.

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