Everyone knows of a great restaurant that didn’t make it because their parking was terrible, or they were in a strip mall where visibility is low.  The traits of a great location will certainly vary by the type of business but the importance of finding the ideal location for success do not.

Urgent Care site selection starts with leveraging data to drive your decision.  Below are some of the factors to take into account when considering if that old Blockbuster location really has the potential to thrive as a UC.

• Population – A benchmark of 20k+ in the target market
• Surrounding Retailers – You want your center to be by the other frequently visited businesses…grocery stores, big box retailers, etc.
• Competition – How many other healthcare facilities are within your target market? How does it compare to the population?
• Parking – Ideally 5-6 spots per 1,000 square feet.
• Visibility – if your center or signage is set too far from the road or if it is blocked by other retailers that could be detrimental to the success of the center.
• Signage – dedicated signage is preferred to shared
• Traffic Volume – more than 15k each day is ideal
• Building Type – Free-standing is always best; endcaps are always better than an in-line location.
• Demographics of Target Market
  • Age – Frequent users of UCs are families with children, Gen X and Millennials. This is not to say there isn’t opportunity with other age groups.  See the chart below from the 2022 Benchmarking report for survey respondents’ distribution of patient age.
  • Household income – This is a factor most often to be considered with the amount of competition in the market. If the HH income is lower in the area, but there aren’t many healthcare options this could still prove beneficial.
  • Insurance – What kind of insurance do the residents in your target market hold? If your center won’t be accepting Medicaid, then a high % of residents using that program will reduce your total addressable market population.

Many of these factors must be considered in relation to the other and prioritized when assessing between multiple potential sites. This is also in no way an exhaustive list of factors to consider when choosing your next site location, but it does show that there is way more than intuition or gut feel when it comes to picking the ideal spot. 

What have been key features to your most successful locations… or what were their downfalls that you didn’t see coming?

*Benchmarks within this post were provided by National Urgent Care Realty