Each month, millions of patients visit Zocdoc to find and instantly book appointments with healthcare providers across every state and specialty. That means every day, with their clicks, patients are telling us what they want from their urgent care providers.
To make a mark in today’s competitive urgent care landscape, it’s essential to understand the demographics, preferences and reasons behind potential patients’ visits. We analyzed the data from hundreds of thousands of bookings in 2023 to give you an inside look at what urgent care patients want when looking for new providers. Leveraging these insights can help you acquire more new patients and stand out from the crowd.
Who is looking for new urgent care providers?
3 out of 5 urgent care bookers were women.
Nearly half of all bookers (47%) were millennials and Gen Z made up nearly a quarter of bookings (26%). Gen X accounted for 14% of bookings, while Baby Boomers and up accounted for 5% of bookings. Those under 18 accounted for 8% of bookings.
What characteristics matter most when choosing an urgent care doctor?
Speed to care is one of the most important factors for patients when choosing an urgent care provider. Almost 4 in 5 bookings were for appointments within 1 day.
Urgent care patients look for providers who take their insurance. 3 out 4 appointments were booked using a commercial insurance plan and 9 out of 10 appointments were in-network.
Where do they want to see the urgent care doctor?
Patients strongly prefer to see urgent care providers close to home, with 4 out of 5 appointments booked within 20 miles of their location.
Why do they want to see the urgent care doctor?
The top 10 visit reasons included:
- Urgent care consultation
- Illness
- Sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing
- Annual physical
- Urinary tract infection (UTI)
- Sore throat
- Prescription/refill
- Cold
- Vaginal discharge/infection
- Ear wax cleaning
When patients chose to book without insurance, the top 3 visit reasons were for prescriptions/refills, high blood pressure/hypertension and ECG/EKG testing.
COVID-19 testing, prescriptions/refills and high blood pressure/hypertension were the top 3 most booked out-of-network visit reasons.
When do they want to see the urgent care doctor?
Most popular appointment days
Monday and Fridays were the two most popular days, although appointments were relatively evenly spread across the week.
Most popular appointment time slots
Overall, 9 a.m. was the most popular time of day for an urgent care appointment, followed closely by 10 a.m., noon and 1 p.m.
How do patients book visits with urgent care providers?
60% of urgent care bookings were made via mobile, while 40% booked via desktop. Using a platform that meets both preferences helps providers easily acquire and retain patients.
A little over half of patients (52%) prefer to book urgent care appointments from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. when the office is typically closed. Unlocking access to 24/7 booking ensures patients can book when it’s most convenient for them.
How Urgent Care Providers Can Stand Out
Show off your space
Relative to urgent care providers with zero office photos, those with 4 or more office photos got 2.7x as many bookings.
More languages, more bookings
Urgent care providers who speak two languages received 1.5x as many bookings compared to providers who only speak 1 language.
Do you put the care in urgent care?
Urgent care providers on Zocdoc received an average rating of 4.69 out of 5. Only patients who have seen providers can leave a review on Zocdoc’s platform, which creates a trustworthy environment and encourages bookings.
If you’re aiming to expand your reach and attract new patients, the data-driven insights above can help you refine your marketing strategies and align your services with patient expectations. Speed to care, convenient locations and a user-friendly booking experience via mobile and desktop are just a few of the factors that matter most to urgent care patients. In today’s competitive urgent care landscape, platforms like Zocdoc –– that enable easy booking and help make your online presence pop –– can easily connect you with new patients actively seeking urgent care.