I get asked this question all the time. The great thing is, now I don't have to feel silly when I say "I don't know!". The Urgent Care Association of America and The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine put together a survey, conducted extensive research on the topic- consulting every database in existence, and came up with the answer..."we don't know!" That is not to say there were no findings...read on.
The problem exists in the definition of Urgent Care- whether to include retail clinics (those located inside a retail store), hospital based-urgent care centers (sometimes labeled "urgent care" but in reality simply a fast-track located within the ED), Primary Care Centers that allow walk-ins but do not have extended hours. Centers like these that fall outside of the definition of urgent care were not indluded, but others that fell more in the gray area were what made it so difficult to count. There are centers that should legitimately be qualified as urgent care centers but are nowhere on the web or any registry. Simply put, the number was difficult to find, and admittedly incomplete, but the number of identifiable urgent care centers was found to be....drum roll please...roughly 8,000 urgent care centers nationwide- much less than the initial estimate of 12,000. The moral of the story? Promote your practice and you will be paving the way for research and education for the entire industry! For more info on the issue, check out the January 2009 issue of JUCM.
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