Health systems understand that urgent care is not going away, leading many to acquire or partner with such groups to reduce market competition and serve as a funnel for their specialty care services.
Here are five health systems that have acquired or announced plans to acquire urgent care centers in the last eight months:
1. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare has agreed to purchase 41 Texas urgent care centers from FastMed. The deal includes 19 FastMed and 22 MedPost urgent care centers in several of Texas' major cities, including Dallas and Austin. Currently, HCA operates 268 urgent care clinics nationwide. The deal is set to close this summer.
2. Forty-one urgent care clinics across Texas will join Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White's network through a new partnership with NextCare Urgent Care.NextCare locations in Houston, San Antonio and Abilene will grow Baylor Scott and White's presence into new markets. Over the next few months, the two organizations will finalize branding, digital integration and other improvements.
3. Little Rock, Ark.-based Baptist Health purchased five urgent care centers in May. The new clinics are from the brand Sherwood Urgent Care Centers which — like Baptist Health Urgent Care — is a member of the Urgent Team Family of Urgent Care & Walk-In Centers. The centers will maintain their current care teams with expanded access to Baptist Health specialists when needed. Baptist Health Urgent Care now has 18 locations in Arkansas.
4. Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System teamed with GoHealth Urgent Care to operate 10 existing urgent care centers as a joint venture and open more locations in Houston. Ten existing Memorial Hermann Urgent Care locations will transition to the new Memorial Hermann-GoHealth Urgent Care joint venture this summer. The centers and virtual platform will be staffed and clinically led by Memorial Hermann Medical Group clinicians. The joint venture also plans to add more urgent care centers across Houston.
5. New Orleans-based Ochsner Health acquired Diamondhead (Miss.) Urgent Care in December. Ochsner now has two locations — Diamondhead Urgent Care and Ochsner Health Center-Port Bienville — that provide urgent care services in the area. It also has Ochsner Medical Center-Hancock, known as Hancock Medical Center before the health system acquired the facility.