If every potential business owner could describe exactly what they’d like to find in their pending investment, it would probably start with something along the lines of having a chance to make a lot of money. But with urgent care opportunities abound – and a booming market for the services they provide with no indication of that demand slowing down – the perfect investment opportunity is clearer than ever.
So when we say “booming,” what exactly do we mean? In short, the urgent care industry has filled a critical niche that provides a convenience service for the public in an industry that it can’t ignore: healthcare.
It starts with something we call “The Emergency Room Paradox,” which refers to a change in the way Americans receive emergency care.
The Emergency Room Paradox
If you’ve ever been to an emergency room (and chances are you probably have), you know that the lines are incredibly long, the service is understandably slow and at times even subpar when you are tended to, and the cost is very expensive.
The issues with emergency departments began to come to a head in the mid-1990s when “in a ten-year span, from 1994 to 2004, the number of hospitals and emergency rooms decreased by nine percent, while emergency room visits increased by more than one million visits a year,” per the American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine.
More people were visiting emergency rooms while their availability was decreasing, and all the while studies reported that trips to the emergency department were increasingly unnecessary – meaning that patients who visited often didn’t have a better available option to them besides going to the ER. In 2009, one study reported that up to 29 percent of all emergency department visits were unnecessary and could be handled in an urgent or primary care setting, while just a few years later, updated studies reported that number had grown to over 71 percent, with some reporting even higher percentages.
Hence the uptick in urgent care opportunities: as business-savvy people with an entrepreneurial spirit recognized the chance to capitalize on a sorely-needed service, more and more urgent care opportunities surfaced.
A Booming Industry for Urgent Care Opportunities
Seriously, when we say “booming,” we mean it.
In 2016, the urgent care industry cracked $15 billion in revenue, up from $11.5 billion just five years earlier in 2011, per Business Insider. But that growth is expected to take off in the next few years, with revenue expected to more than double, reaching over $30 billion per year by 2020, according to Transparency Market Research, which predicts a 3.8 percent growth rate.
Other outlets are even more optimistic about urgent care opportunities and the industry’s projected growth, like Harris Williams & Co., which predicts nearly six percent growth annually moving forward. Market research leaders IBIS World reported that the urgent care center industry generated $25 billion in revenue last year, outperforming modest reporting by some outlets.
But there’s more: Patient visits are increasing by approximately 2.7 percent per year, according to Kalorama Information research via Business Insider, while urgent care centers are only growing by about 1.7 percent annually. The increase in patients will amount to about $1.7 million extra in revenue for each urgent care center by 2021.
What Are You Waiting For?
If you’re ready to get started and think you’re an ideal candidate to own your own business, contact us today to speak with a representative about how to take advantage of the urgent care opportunities American Family Care offers and how to begin your franchising journey with us.
