At the conclusion of this activity the learner should be able to:
- Explain the factors that drive urgent care volume including trade area make-up, physical real estate characteristics, and operational delivery as well as
- volume-limiting factors like marketing, payer contracts, and competition.
- Identify the pros and cons of various types of space including medical office buildings, freestanding/street-facing, shopping center end-cap, and in-line retail.
- Perform an analysis of build-out of existing space versus build-to-suit and owning versus leasing.
- Recognize common site selection pitfalls leading to urgent care failure such as insufficient density, poor visibility, and overspending on build-out.
- Leverage the physical location of the urgent care center as a marketing tool.
1 Hour Audio with synced Power Point
Recorded on September 29, 2016 at the Fall Urgent Care Conference.
Urgent care is a retail business in the sense that a center's physical location is a key driver of revenue from patient visits. This session demonstrates the importance of signage and traffic counts as "marketing tools" in raising awareness of a new urgent care center in the community, reviews the demographic factors and property characteristics that make for a "good location", and compares/contrasts different real estate options that demonstrate to an urgent care entrepreneur "what to look for" when selecting a site.
Faculty Bio:
Alan Ayers is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity. He has over 10 years experience in strategic planning, business development, clinical operations, sales/marketing and customer service for urgent care, occupational medicine, and primary care facilities of all sizes. Ayers has completed a term on the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) and served for over eight years as its Practice Management Content Advisor. A prolific and award-winning writer, Ayers currently serves as Practice Management Editor for The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine (JUCM). In 2014, Ayers was recognized by the McGuireWoods law firm as one of the nation's 15 Urgent Care Thought Leaders as well as by the Ambulatory M&A Advisor as one of Urgent Care's Top 15 Influencers. He is frequently cited in national and industry media as an expert on matters related to urgent care. Prior to serving as Chief Operating Officer of a hospital-affiliated urgent care network, Ayers was a consultant to the retail industry with clients like Walmart, McDonalds, Bank of America, and Verizon Wireless. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina, has an MBA from the University of Mississippi, and a Masters of Accounting from The Ohio State University where he graduated first in his class. Ayers has recently served on the Board of Directors of the Texas/New Mexico affiliate of Volunteers of America, a 120-year old social services charity, and he is an FAA-licensed commercial pilot. Ayers currently resides in Northern Illinois.
Credit Information:
Urgent Care Management Certificate
Earn 1 UCMC credit in Operations by listening to this recorded session.
Submitting for Credit:
If you would like to submit for either of the credit above, once you complete the activity you must submit for credit you will need to complete the 5 question exam. You must answer 3 out of 5 correctly to receive credit. Email education@ucaoa.org with questions.