Dr. Roger Stanmore, emergency and urgent care physician, compiles a list of things to know about urgent care medicine. To learn more about urgent care medicine, please visit: rogerstanmore.com/

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2. Approximately 89 percent of urgent care
centers experience an increase in patient
intake during the year 2014.

3. Today, there are nearly 7,100 urgent care facilities
nationwide, according to the Urgent Care Association of
America. The full-service facilities are verified by
UCAOA, which ensures that they make urgent care
medicine (x-ray, labs and extended hours available.

4. About 87 percent of urgent care facilities acquired or
built a new location in 2014, followed by 91 percent
growth in 2015.

5. On average, urgent care facilities have seven exam/
treatment rooms.

6. Urgent care centers are commonly located in shopping
centers/strip malls (34.1 percent), freestanding building
(33.2 percent), mixed-use building (13.6 percent), and
medical offices (19.1 percent).

7. At nearly all urgent care facilities (90 percent), the wait
time tends to be 30 minutes or less when attempting to
see a physician. The total patient throughput is 60
minutes or less at 84 percent of urgent care facilities.

8. Approximately 96 percent of urgent care centers operate
seven days each week and open at least four hours per
day.

9. About 87 percent of urgent cares offer urgent or
episodic care exclusively. At the same time, 13 percent of
offer urgent and ongoing primary or specialty care.

10. Close to 70 percent (66 percent) of urgent care patients
have a primary care physician unaffiliated with primary
care physicians.

11. Just two percent of patients who visit an urgent care
facility is transferred to an emergency room.

12. Nearly all (95 percent) of urgent care centers email or call
patients following their visit.

13. While 22 percent of urgent care facilities are hospital-
owned, 20 percent are privately owned by two or more
physicians.

14. Nearly 14,000 patients visited urgent care facilities in 2014,
which means urgent care centers assisted roughly four
patients per hour with there being approximately 50 visits
each day. On average, urgent care physicians are able to view
4.5 patients per hour.

15. Urgent care facilities utilize important social marketing
tools, such as social media (85 percent), community event
sponsorship (83 percent), and search engine optimization
(75 percent).