Plain Talk

Location isn’t just a factor of success in the fast‑growing world of urgent care—it’s the foundation.

While a well‑placed clinic can thrive, serving a steady stream of patients, a poorly chosen site can struggle with high costs and low foot traffic. Despite the best intentions, many urgent care providers make common mistakes that lead to underperforming locations and lost revenue. The good news? Avoiding these missteps is possible with strategic site selection.

Common Reasons Urgent Care Sites Fail
Despite thorough planning, some urgent care sites fail due to avoidable mistakes. Here are the most common pitfalls:

1. High Overheads
Excessive operating costs relative to revenues are a leading cause of failure. High rent, utility expenses, and staffing costs can erode profitability, especially in markets with lower patient volumes. To mitigate this risk, carefully analyze the financial feasibility of each location and consider lower‑cost alternatives when possible.

2. Wrong Location Selection
Choosing a poorly suited location—due to insufficient population density and mismatched demographics/psychographics—can certainly impact performance. However, a thorough market analysis should go beyond demographics and psychographics to evaluate healthcare utilization trends and payer mix. Use data‑driven tools to evaluate potential locations comprehensively and ensure alignment with your target audience. By prioritizing sites with the right balance of population density, payer mix, and healthcare demand, urgent care operators can set themselves up for long‑term success.

3. Poor Business Case
Failing to create a data‑driven business case can lead to operational challenges. This includes inadequate staffing plans, insufficient market research, and ignoring consumer behavior trends. A well‑structured plan helps ensure operational efficiency and aligns the site with market demands.

4. Proximity to Other Urgent Care Medical Centers
Choosing sites too close to other urgent care facilities, including your own, can create market cannibalization. This reduces patient volume for all providers in the area. Conduct a competitive analysis to identify underserved regions and avoid oversaturation.

5. Lack of Retail Synergy
Being isolated from complementary businesses like pharmacies or grocery stores limits foot traffic. Retail adjacencies can significantly boost visibility and patient visits. Prioritize locations with strong retail synergies to enhance patient convenience and increase spontaneous visits.

Case Study: Supporting Urgent Care Clinics
CityMD, a rapidly growing urgent care provider in New York City, needed a data‑driven approach to optimize site selection and better understand its patient base. The company aimed to expand strategically while maintaining its consumer‑centric philosophy—ensuring new locations were positioned to meet patient demand effectively.

To support this goal, Buxton developed detailed patient profiles, a site selection model, and a market analysis to identify the most promising expansion opportunities. These insights were integrated into SCOUT, Buxton’s geospatial platform, giving CityMD the ability to analyze markets and validate decisions with confidence.

The partnership not only streamlined site selection but also helped CityMD extract valuable insights from its internal data, uncovering new opportunities. As a result, CityMD successfully increased the average unit volume of new locations, reinforcing its commitment to delivering convenient, high‑quality healthcare.

The Bottom Line
Urgent care providers can’t afford to take a trial‑and‑error approach to strategic site selection. The wrong location can lead to financial losses, operational headaches, and missed growth opportunities. But with the right data, market insights, and strategic planning, providers can confidently choose sites that maximize patient volume and profitability. By leveraging analytics to assess market demand, competition, and site potential, urgent care organizations can make informed decisions that set them up for long‑term success.

Ready to find the perfect sites for your urgent care expansion? Learn how Buxton’s location intelligence solutions can help you grow with confidence.

Buxton is the leading customer analytics firm that helps organizations identify who their customers are, where those customers are located, and the value those customers have to the organization.

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