Those of us in the on-demand medicine space all face a daunting challenge. Our industry attracts a mass market of consumers who have much higher expectations from their experience, the same expectations they have of retailers like Starbucks, Amazon or Target. We also face a crowded market of large and small players and much greater saturation, especially in urban and suburban markets.…

One of the more popular columns in The New York Times Magazine is “Diagnosis” – adapted as a docuseries in 2019 on Netflix – where Lisa Sanders, M.D., describes patients who present with troubling symptoms and no clear diagnosis. These articles describe cases where it takes a while for doctors to figure out what’s going on, and sometimes the answers come from the unlikeliest of sources.…

Tom Charland, Merchant Medicine Founder and Former CEO, Announces 14th Annual ConvUrgentCare Symposium: I am excited to announce that registration is now open for the 14th Annual ConvUrgentCare® Symposium, taking place on September 6-9, 2022 in Scottsdale, Arizona at the iconic Hotel Valley Ho.…

World-class AI diagnosis software merges with the nation’s premier healthcare consumerism consulting group. …

Bricks-and-mortar is not going away. Consumers expect a new and different experience as well as thoughtful integration of virtual and in-person access to services. This ideology extends to all aspects of the US retail and healthcare industries. Understanding the keys to successful integration of virtual and in-person services is what will drive the long-term relevance and survivability of health systems everywhere.…

For the past several months, the urgent care industry has been abuzz with articles and commentary about how COVID-19 has reshaped visit volume and chief complaint mix across the country. Operators have watched COVID-19 testing nearly subsume their visit volume with barely a hint of traditional cold and flu visits that typically boom this time of year. There has also been a lot of talk about the influence of technology, particularly virtual technology, on traditional urgent care models.…

The Urgent Care Quality Group (UCQG) is a group of urgent care chief medical officers and practice executives who have joined together to foster peer-to-peer dialogue that identifies the key issues of quality and patient safety in our industry and paves the way to actionable, meaningful improvements. …

In the 1999 Star Wars film “The Phantom Menace” the legendary Jedi Master Yoda mentors young Anakin Skywalker with the now famous words, “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”…

In April 2016, I wrote an article for our blog entitled “Tough Talk Around Walk-in Medicine” in which I listed the top 10 focal points for hospital-based urgent care operators. The article covered some of the typical challenges for hospitals who are trying to compete with more nimble private-equity-backed and private urgent care operators.…

Texas Health Resources has launched a new urgent care model that offers patients a personalized experience from the moment they walk through the door.

With the opening of 20 locations across North Texas, Texas Health is investing approximately $44 million in Texas Health Breeze Urgent Care,™ a modern approach to urgent care that offers patients fast, convenient and personalized care with upscale amenities and transparent, affordable pricing.

In Part 1 of this article, we posed the question: Are we entering a new era of ambulatory care where a whole set of structural changes are driven by the combination of new technologies, demographic changes and the many influences of Covid-19? The answer is an unquestionable yes. What is not so clear is the extent of those structural changes.…

Running an urgent care platform was already getting complicated before the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. By this past March it looked as if the end of the urgent care world was upon us. Patient visits came to a halt for six weeks or more. Those who jumped on the testing bandwagon managed to kick back into gear. But this may be a short-lived salve for something more dramatic coming down the road.…

The urgent care industry has grown significantly over the last 10 years, with lots of smart money flowing into the sector from private equity, publicly traded health insurance companies and large health systems.…

The scene is an emergency department (ED) at a large hospital in the Northeast. Providers and staff are going full out as patients flood the department. Over the loudspeaker, EMTs in transit with a patient announce the age, gender, and condition. Another in-transit first responder team waits on hold in a queue that seems endless, one after another announcing a COVID-19 patient on the way. …

Those of us in the on-demand medicine space all face a daunting challenge. It stems from the fact that on-demand medicine now attracts a mass market of consumers who have much higher expectations from their experience, the same expectations they have of retailers like Starbucks, Amazon or Target.…

We are entering a highly competitive and disruptive phase of the healthcare ecosystem. Over the next 10 years this new phase will be characterized by a battle for the “front door” of healthcare services between traditional health systems and new entrants. That battle will be waged over creating a new healthcare “experience” driven by seamless and frictionless technology, high-performing and highly engaged teams, and a radically changed payer environment.…

Every year after our annual on-demand strategy symposium, we reflect on what transpired in the previous year and what appear to be the dominant trends in the year to come. This year’s 11th Annual Strategy Symposium was perhaps the most compelling evidence that we are entering some dynamic, if not transformative times in the on-demand world of healthcare.…

We have many health system clients who ask: “If we were to start from scratch, what should our urgent care model look like?” The answer is to look not at the current state of urgent care, no matter how slick, consumer-friendly or retail-oriented it may appear. Unfortunately, many health systems are caught up in the look and feel of urgent care, many of them hiring executives from places like Neiman Marcus or Amazon. There is also the “rear guard” focus on justifying purchased medical group assets, referring patients downstream to places that may not necessarily be expeditious or economical, and spending large sums on outdated, system-level patient experience programs.…

During the last six months I have been struck by how suddenly the economics, culture and technology underpinnings of healthcare are changing. These changes seem poised to disrupt the on-demand medicine landscape in a major way. …

Someone once asked me why I write so often about primary care when Merchant Medicine’s focus as a consulting firm is urgent care strategy, development and operations. It is a very legitimate question, and one that naturally leads to what I believe is a roadmap of how primary care and urgent care will evolve over the next few years.…