Healthcare Insights
How many urgent care centers are in each U.S. state?
Urgent care centers have become a key part of the U.S. healthcare landscape, offering an alternative to emergency rooms (ERs) for non-life-threatening medical conditions.
According to all-payor claims data, urgent care use jumped 70% between 2017 and 2022. Convenience, high costs of ER visits, and increased investment by health systems are a few factors fueling their growth.
Using data from Definitive Healthcare’s ClinicView product, we compiled a list of urgent care centers in the U.S. in 2023. Keep reading to find out where these clinics are located and how urgent care centers differ from other types of care settings.
Number of urgent care centers in each U.S. state
Fig. 1 Data is from Definitive Healthcare’s ClinicView product. The number of facilities represents only those urgent care clinics listed as “active” in the Definitive Healthcare database as of May 10, 2023.
How many urgent care clinics are in the U.S.?
There were 10,781 active urgent care clinics in the U.S. as of May 2023. These centers offer convenient healthcare services for people who require immediate medical attention but do not have an emergency medical condition.
About half of all clinics were concentrated across ten densely populated states, including California (10%), Texas (8%), and Florida (7%). Metropolitan areas with the highest numbers of urgent care clinics are detailed below.
Metropolitan areas with the most urgent care clinics
| Rank | CBSA | # of urgent care centers | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 735 | Explore |
| 2 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 429 | Explore |
| 3 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 270 | Explore |
| 4 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI | 264 | Explore |
| 5 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA | 232 | Explore |
| 6 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL | 229 | Explore |
| 7 | Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 209 | Explore |
| 8 | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 198 | Explore |
| 9 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 193 | Explore |
| 10 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 180 | Explore |
Fig. 2 Data is from Definitive Healthcare’s ClinicView product. The number of facilities represents only those urgent care clinics listed as “active” in the Definitive Healthcare database as of May 10, 2023.
What are urgent care clinics and what do they treat?
An urgent care center is a medical facility that provides immediate medical treatment for non-life-threatening medical conditions. These centers are open for extended hours, including evenings and weekends, and do not require appointments, allowing patients to receive medical care on a walk-in basis.
Urgent care centers are equipped to treat a wide range of conditions, including minor injuries, illnesses, and infections that require prompt medical attention but aren’t serious enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room.
How do urgent care clinics differ from retail clinics?
Retail clinics and urgent care centers are grouped together as convenient care clinics because both offer extended hours and accept walk-in appointments. The main difference between retail clinics and urgent care centers is the level of care that they provide. Retail clinics treat a limited range of minor, acute conditions, such as allergies, colds, and infections.
Urgent care centers, which have on-site diagnostic equipment and procedure rooms, can offer a broader range of care for non-life-threatening conditions that need immediate attention, such as splinting and casting for broken bones or minor laceration and wound repair.
To qualify as an urgent care clinic in Definitive Healthcare’s ClinicView product, a facility must meet the American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine and the Urgent Care Association of America’s primary requirements. These include:
- Accept walk-in patients
- Offer extended hours
- Treat a broad spectrum of illnesses and injuries
- Procedure room for performing minor medical procedures (e.g., stitches, casts, low-risk surgery under a local anesthetic only)
- Multiple exam rooms
- On-site diagnostic equipment (e.g., phlebotomy and x-ray)
- Communication lines with local hospitals for streamlined transfers to ERs
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