Exploring the Synergy Between Healthcare Services and Retail Real Estate
Urgent Care Clinics are all about Convenience
Consumer demands for more convenient healthcare are driving a shift in the real estate strategies of healthcare providers. This includes moving to what is perceived as more convenient locations, which are increasingly in retail settings. Urgent care clinics are a response to the shift from inpatient to outpatient care and are a low-cost alternative to hospital emergency rooms, where escalating overhead costs and long wait times are the norms.
The Urgent Care Centers industry represents one of the fastest-growing segments of the American healthcare system. With rising wait times for both primary and emergency care providers, urgent care centers have become an increasingly viable alternative for patients.
An urgent care center is a medical clinic with expanded hours that is specially equipped to diagnose and treat a broad spectrum of non-life and limb-threatening illnesses and injuries.
Urgent care centers have proliferated across the nation, from strip malls to street corners, making them accessible and convenient. As of May 2023, there were 10,781 active urgent care clinics in the United States and the industry employs around 230,000 people.
A considerable number of people have chosen to seek medical attention at urgent care centers, which provide walk-in and after-hours services. The revenue of urgent care centers has increased at a CAGR of 7.1% over the previous five years, reaching $52.7 billion; in 2023 alone, this figure rose by 4.0% according to IBISWorld
The main reason most patients chose urgent care over other care sites is that they thought wait times would be shorter (22 percent) or the location was more convenient (21 percent).
The average wait time for non-emergent new-patient visits across five specialties is 26 days, an increase of 8% from 2017. Meanwhile, according to a new Merritt Hawkins and AMN Healthcare survey, the average wait time in family medicine is 20.6 days, a 30% decrease from 2017.
Urgent Care Clinics in Retail Real Estate
Increasingly, large healthcare providers are implementing an ambulatory strategy plan, developing tentacles in areas where potential patients live and shop, and increasingly leasing vacant retail spaces; urgent care clinics are primary examples. Retail landlords are embracing healthcare tenants, attracted to their perceived stability and ability to drive foot traffic. In adding more healthcare providers to their retail mixes, a key benefit to landlords is that doctors and medical centers often have higher credit ratings than retailers and are viewed as somewhat recession-resistant at a time when the retail sector is struggling with a rash of store closures and higher vacancy rates.
In adding more healthcare providers to their retail mixes, a key benefit to landlords is that doctors and medical centers often have higher credit ratings than retailers and are viewed as somewhat recession-resistant at a time when the retail sector is struggling with a rash of store closures and higher vacancy rates.
From the perspective of healthcare providers, the desire to locate in shopping centers with appealing demographics, high visibility, and healthy foot traffic is what is driving the transition of outpatient facilities into traditional suburban and urban retail locations. Healthcare providers are beginning to think like retailers when making real estate decisions and tap into the retail sector’s knowledge of demographics and consumer behavior.
Site Selection for Urgent Care Operators
The top healthcare real estate service providers now have access to better decision support tools to guide their site selection and leasing decisions using data-informed scenarios to determine a forward-looking market footprint. Pinpointing regions with substantial health needs and a favorable payer mix can support a sustainable growth strategy. Today, knowing who and where your best patients are, and where to find more just like them is serving as the foundation for facility site selection.
Today the most advanced healthcare real estate providers are working with their clients as partners combining the health providers’ critical demographic and patient data with GIS systems and incorporating these data sets into tools to be used in conjunction with traditional real estate site selection criteria.
Selecting a Retail Property for Urgent Care Use
Urgent Care locations are better suited for smaller shopping centers, free-standing buildings, and pad sites located in the same vicinity as big box stores and food and drug retailers that will serve as a retail draw.
The most viable locations for urgent care use are accessible to dense populations exhibiting key demographics with a propensity for urgent care services, heavy traffic counts, and a strong retail/service draw. The highest-quality retail properties in superior locations will come at a premium price. Highly visible endcap or pad site locations with attractive aesthetics, highly visible signage, easy access, and healthy traffic counts will command the highest rents within a particular submarket or trade area but may be worth the higher rental cost if they support higher patient volumes.
