At American Family Care (AFC), our urgent care franchise partners are able to help and support their community during the summer months by providing much-needed, timely, affordable, and convenient care and services.

The simple fact is that our urgent care franchises operate at the intersection between the emergency room and a traditional family medical practice – many of which do not offer or can’t easily accommodate appointments quickly enough to meet a patient’s needs.

Urgent care centers have risen in popularity over the past decade for several reasons, namely time constraints, for one, to be sure. Emergency room visits also are often viewed as being too expensive, and people are often concerned that their “emergency” may require a prohibitive wait time in the face of other more critical or life-saving emergencies, whereas wait times in urgent care facilities are often shorter and more palatable. 

In addition, technology and resources offered at urgent care centers have turned the perception tide around. More and more people are comfortable starting an interaction with a health care provider on the phone or through what is referred to as “telehealth” to ascertain the situation and background on the onset of an illness or injury, efficiently increasing speed to in-person patient/clinician time.

All of this is a long way of saying that American Family Care offers an urgent care franchise opportunity that represents an excellent investment for entrepreneurs and a way to truly give back to your community.

Common Summertime Reasons Your Community Turns to Urgent Care Centers

American Family Care centers are open year-round each with a staff that’s always available to help their individual communities in many ways, but here are just a few of the common reasons patients, families, and the community will turn to your urgent care franchise for help during the summer months: 

• Sunburn treatment: Despite the best intentions and precautions, sunburns are common during the summer months. There are myriad risk factors like the amount of time spent outside, the actual hours spent (the greatest exposure is between 10 am and 3 pm), lack of sunscreen, and more. But some sunburns are worse than others, and our urgent care franchise owners are able to provide care for people of all ages who find themselves with burn blisters, fever or chills, or even just pain. Even better, many potential patients in your area might not even know that there is care available for sunburns, so your service can begin by simply messaging this option!

• Dehydration: Dehydration is a legitimate concern and should be treated as such – its symptoms are diverse and include fever, headache, light-headedness, rapid breathing, and more. Dehydration can occur slowly, but its impact is immediate and can seriously impair a body’s reaction time during physical activity and impact a person’s ability to operate a vehicle, bike, or other transportation. Our urgent care facilities can assess these symptoms and treat them, including potentially administering rehydration fluids to speed healing time. 

• Rashes and skin concerns: Skin irritations of all kinds are always troubling and annoying, but eczema, for example, is a condition that many assume is abated in the summer months. Unfortunately, prolonged sun exposure and increased time in and out of water during the summer can make eczema worse – particularly for children. AFC urgent care centers are able to diagnose and treat a broad set of skin rashes and irritations, including diaper rash, heat rash, drug and medicine skin interactions, dermatitis, and hives.

• Insect bites: Most people are prepared for all manner of insect bites, especially in the summer, but they can be particularly scary or troubling when there is persistent pain, itching, swelling, or discoloration. AFC urgent care franchise owners are able to be a backstop for consultation on allergic reactions to either an insect bite or an over-the-counter treatment used to alleviate the symptoms.

• General illness symptoms and diagnosis: AFC Urgent Care franchisees provide many baseline medical diagnoses and treatments for general ailments – think ear infections or strep throat – ailments that occur year round but can be particularly cumbersome in the summer months. Rather than waiting for an appointment with a general practitioner, families and patients will be able to bring these kinds of issues to your location for on-the-spot diagnosis, a prescription if needed, and go along with their day.

• Accidents and minor injuries: Similarly, with so many people wary of going to an emergency room or hospital location for treatment, urgent care centers are increasingly seen as a viable alternative – not quite the local doctor’s office, but certainly not a traditional ER. When a child needs an X-ray for a potentially broken or sprained arm, families increasingly look toward their local urgent care center – even commonly searching “urgent care near me” – bringing more potential patients into your center.

• School and sports physicals: One of the best ways you can help your community during the summer months is, in fact, helping families prepare for fall. Most schools require updated physical forms, if not in time for the school year, at least by the end of the calendar year, along with updated shots and vaccinations. Similarly, if your child participates in sports and certain other activities, schools and other athletic directors may require additional tests and records, all of which our AFC franchises are able to conduct and complete. 

Your Franchise Location Can Offer Three Modalities of Service to Your Community

When you become an AFC urgent care franchise owner, you and your team are able to provide a tremendous service in your community. Our facilities stand out from other options because we offer three streams of services that provide near-immediate care for any need. These services include:

1. Primary and walk-in services – These services are intended to provide the community with a safe, convenient, and affordable alternative for healthcare needs without the wait for a traditional doctor’s office or the expense and stress of an emergency room visit. Our full range of preventative care means we can handle common illnesses and ongoing conditions, along with referrals for specialists.
2. Urgent care and emergency services – Our clinics offer real-time emergency care for everything from insect bites to the flu and accidents and injuries. Our staff physicians can treat sinus and ear infections, sprains, cuts, and other kinds of pressing injuries and medical needs.
3. Occupational health and lab services – We’ve always emphasized the need to make occupational health easy, quick, and cost-efficient, and these services also allow us to serve businesses – an often overlooked segment of the market. Our clinics provide OSHA-mandated exams, D.O.T. physicals, drug testing, and a wide variety of other lab tests for patients and on employers’ behalf.

When you choose to invest in an urgent care franchise with American Family Care, you’re opening an affordable, convenient, full-service medical alternative for your community. Our goal is to reduce scheduling issues, long waits, and the worries associated with traditional emergency rooms and put the focus on timely patient care.

Joining the AFC family is a great way to become a part of the healthcare industry while at the same time partnering with an established business and a proven business model. Partnering with AFC to open your urgent care clinic is one of the best ways to capitalize on the healthcare franchise industry because we’ve been in business since 1982 and have already figured out the most efficient ways to grow the business. 

For more information on the impact, you can make by investing in an urgent care franchise with AFC, contact us today to begin your journey toward joining the AFC family!