The nearly 7,100 urgent care centers operating in the U.S. see nearly 160 million patients a year, according to the latest estimate by the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA). To say the competition for these patients is fierce would be an understatement: Urgent care is about as close to retail as healthcare gets.
According to the UCAOA’s 2015 “Benchmarking Survey,” urgi-centers are open an average 4,100 hours a year (equivalent to about 12 hours a day); 96% are open seven days a week. One-third (34.1%) are located in shopping centers or strip malls; another third (33.2%) are in freestanding buildings. The rest are in medical office buildings (19.1%) and mixed-used facilities (13.6%). Physician groups and investors own the greatest share of urgi-clinics, nearly 40%.
For-profit retail chains predominate, led by the Concentra division of Select Medical (300 urgi-centers in 40 states) and U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group (174 centers, 21 states). Corporate and non-physician investors control 23% of urgi-clinics, according to the UCAOA.
Health systems have been developing their own networks of urgent care clinics. Hospitals, either individually or in joint ventures, run 37% of U.S. urgent care centers. Ted Matson, Vice President of Strategy for Sutter Health, which operates 24 urgent cares in Sacramento, Calif., recently compared these clinics to retail shopping centers because they provide lower cost and faster service compared to visiting a doctor’s office.
Other health systems with multiple urgent care centers in their portfolios: Dignity Health, which operates 41 urgi-clinics under its banner, with eight more planned for this year (in 2013, Dignity acquired U.S. HealthWorks, which operates more than 200 occupational health and urgent care centers in 22 states); Centra Care – Florida, Maryland, and Kansas (38); Aurora Health Care – Wisconsin (34); Intermountain Health Care – Utah (32, plus six co-located pediatric urgent care centers); and Carolinas HealthCare System – North Carolina (29).
“Design is now focused on branding,” says Luis Cano, AIA, LEED AP, EDAC, NCARB, Principal and Senior Vice President in the Miami office of Gresham Smith and Partners.
GS&P designed its first urgent care center 14 years ago. Since then its healthcare work has been exclusively for hospitals, which see urgent care as a way to “project their influence into geographic areas where they otherwise wouldn’t be,” says Cano. Architecturally, he says, the brand “perpetuates the cohesiveness of the healthcare system.”
GS&P’s hospital clients don’t usually come in with preconceived ideas for the design of their clinics, but they do know what works for them, says Cano. “They listen to us, and what we come up with could be a different solution for each client,” he says.
GS&P is the architect on two urgent care centers for Jackson Health System, which last September opened its first UHealth Jackson Urgent Care center, a 4,100-sf facility in Miami’s Country Walk Plaza. In 2017, Jackson Health System plans to open urgi-cinics in North Miami, Doral, and Cutler Bay, and at its existing North Dade Health Center, Miami Gardens.
Other AEC firms involved in UHealth Jackson projects: MGE Architects, G&G Engineering Group, Gartek Engineering, RC Construction, Harbour Construction, and BDI Construction.
Brian Martin, AIA, LEED AP, EDAC, Senior Designer in SmithGroupJJR’s Healthcare Studio, in Washington, D.C., is also seeing urgent care centers popping up in local retail spaces. “We have to design them for the specific needs of their locations,” which he says limits his firm’s leeway over the design.
Urgent care centers are considered ambulatory construction, using a B-plus business occupancy standard. Their construction budgets are bare bones. “They are not intended to be flagships,” says Martin.
Martin believes the Walmartization of healthcare at the retail level will continue. His firm has worked with one of the nation’s biggest healthcare systems, Kaiser Permanente, to develop what could be a template for urgent care centers. “The providers are realizing cost efficiencies on their own,” he says.
Related Stories
| May 16, 2012
Balfour Beatty Construction taps Kiger as VP of operations
Kiger will manage current relationships and pursue other strategic clients, including select healthcare clients and strategic project pursuits in the Central Tennessee region.
| May 7, 2012
4 more trends in higher-education facilities
Our series on college buildings continues with a look at new classroom designs, flexible space, collaboration areas, and the evolving role of the university library.
| May 7, 2012
2012 BUILDING TEAM AWARDS: Fort Belvoir Community Hospital
A new military hospital invokes evidence-based design to create a LEED-certified facility for the nation’s soldiers and their families.
| May 7, 2012
2012 BUILDING TEAM AWARDS: Audie L. Murphy VA Hospital
How a Building Team created a high-tech rehabilitation center for wounded veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
| May 3, 2012
2012 BUILDING TEAM AWARDS: Rush University Medical Center
This fully integrated Building Team opted for a multi-prime contracting strategy to keep construction going on Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, despite the economic meltdown.
| May 3, 2012
Ground broken for $94 million hospital expansion at Scripps Encinitas
New facility to more than double emergency department size, boost inpatient beds by 43%.
| May 1, 2012
Construction is underway on MLK ambulatory care center in L.A.
Featuring a variety of sustainable features, the new facility is designed to achieve LEED Gold Certification.
| Apr 27, 2012
GreenExpo365.com to offer webinars on EPA’s WaterSense Program
Architects and builders interested in developing water-efficient buildings invited to attend free sessions featuring experts discussing water-efficient building practices.
| Apr 25, 2012
McCarthy introduces high school students to a career in construction
High school students from the ACE Mentoring Program tour the new CHOC Children’s Patient Tower in Orange, Calif.
| Apr 20, 2012
McCarthy completes Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Replacement Facility
The new hospital’s architectural design combines traditional Santa Barbara Spanish colonial architecture with 21st century medical conveniences highlighted by a therapeutic and sustainable atmosphere.
