Whereas an urgent care clinic is meant to address injuries or illnesses that require emergency care, such illnesses should not be serious enough to warrant a trip to the emergency department. The extended period that emergency care clinics are accessible have made them very popular to people. It is estimated that the number of emergency care clinics in operation in 2018 were 14 times higher the number of clinics operating 10 years ago. So how should you go about establishing an urgent care startup?

Create a Business Plan
The most critical step of establishing any form of business starts with the creation of a business plan. That said, an urgent care startup is no different. By looking at the urgent care business model, a business plan can assist you to establish whether you have a viable opportunity in urgent care business. In the plan, remember to include the intended local community that the clinic is meant to serve. More importantly, outline the kind of relationship that the urgent care center will have with the hospitals around the area in relation to staffing and supplies assistance. People often find themselves asking this one question- how much does it cost to start an urgent care startup. With a business plan, the financial part of the plan should give a rough estimate as well as the financing options available.

Select a Location
Once you have a business plan in place as well as a budget estimate, think about the location where you want to start your urgent care startup. In order to make the best out the local population, make sure that you select a location with high traffic and is easily accessible. Access should come in many different forms including availability of parking. You can imagine renting a block in a high traffic area but patients have to park a few blocks down the street and walk all the way back. An ideal location would be one with a service population of more than 25,000 people per square mile.

Determine the Size of the Facility
There are retail clinics that deal with minor injuries and illnesses and the scope of their operations is a little limited. There are also moderate urgent care clinics that carry out advanced procedures such as those that require x ray services. Lastly, there are advanced care centers that can carry out complex diagnostics such as computed tomography scans for head injuries, abdominal complications and other related injuries and illnesses. Depending on your intended scope of operations, be sure to establish what kind of urgent care startup you want to operate as and the type of patients you intend to serve.

Market Your Facility
It is one thing starting an urgent care startup and it is another thing telling people about it. Remember, you are running a new facility that was not in existence before. For this reason, it can be expected that a greater portion of the population don’t know that the urgent care clinic exists. Invest in marketing. Since most startups are characterized by a limited budget and cash constraints, there are so many other inexpensive ways of letting the local community know about the existence of your urgent care clinic. Print brochures and posters about the business highlighting all the key aspects of the business as well as the hours of operations. You can also use cost as a way of marketing the facility. Offering less-expensive services than the hospitals can increase traffic to the facility. You can also concentrate on areas where people congregate to advertise the services offered at the facility.