Experiences on opening an Urgent Care??

[NRAI2001]

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Hey guys, been doing primary care at a FQHC for about 7 years now. I do a ton of procedures daily in addition to seeing many primary care and urgent care like visits.

Recently been interested in opening an Urgent care with a buddy of mine. Any experiences or opinions on this? Any tips or things to look into for this? I am in California for reference.

Thank you guys

 

[Make Or Break]

Kind of crazy no reply yet. It’s sad how dead this forum is.

Anywho, it can do very well depending on the location and what other pcps/urgent cares/EDs are around. If it’s in the middle of a busy city, you probably won’t make it but if you research the area and find it to be lacking in primary care and other doctors, it’s probably going to be a good setup.

Also it can be a very lean setup. Labs can all be send outs or you can have a istat, cbc machine, ekg, xray. Just have to project what reimbursements will be for these if you plan to order them. You can copy the formula from some of the corporate urgent cares in the area to see how they do it, there’s no magic to it.

Also last thought, a good reputation and “customer satisfaction” (unfortunately) will lead you further than a place that “didn’t do anything for me”… if you catch my drift.

 

[anthroguy]

i think with the growth of reddit this forum has died down considerably. bluedog also deactivated his profile and he was a great source of info. We have cabinbuilder and a couple of old timers keeping it down but the posts/questions themselves are very sparse nowadays.

in reality this is a better place than reddit in terms of keeping laypeople out, but the youngins havent been able to find it

 

[NRAI2001]

I was away from SDN for a few years bc live was too busy and hectic. Its surprising how dead SDN is now. It was a pretty vibrant forum and now its sad. We gotta bring it back.

Is there an equivalent reddit forum you guys know of?

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I was away from SDN for a few years bc live was too busy and hectic. Its surprising how dead SDN is now. It was a pretty vibrant forum and now its sad. We gotta bring it back.

Is there an equivalent reddit forum you guys know of?

There is a family medicine subreddit but it's very hit or miss

 

[Sardonix]

There is a family medicine subreddit but it's very hit or miss

You kidding? r/familymedicine is fantastic. I see a lot of lively exchange there. They've also cracked down on lay people brigading and ranting, taking over conversations with their BS.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

You kidding? r/familymedicine is fantastic. I see a lot of lively exchange there. They've also cracked down on lay people brigading and ranting, taking over conversations with their BS.

I find that politics spills over quite frequently in typical reddit fashion.

I also truly despise the up vote/down vote system that hides posts just because people disagree with them.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

I find that politics spills over quite frequently in typical reddit fashion.

I also truly despise the up vote/down vote system that hides posts just because people disagree with them.

Yeah. Plus, everything on Reddit has this distinct “Reddit vibe” that I don’t really care for. Reddit is ok for hobby discussion etc, but for actual medical discussion it is very annoying (as is the FB physician community). For instance, the r/rheumatology subreddit is dominated by patients whining about nonsense. It’s basically a rheumatology “patient support group” at this point, with very few posts from medical professionals.

 

[cabinbuilder]

i think with the growth of reddit this forum has died down considerably. bluedog also deactivated his profile and he was a great source of info. We have cabinbuilder and a couple of old timers keeping it down but the posts/questions themselves are very sparse nowadays.

in reality this is a better place than reddit in terms of keeping laypeople out, but the youngins havent been able to find it

Yes, I'm still out there but not much traffic in the forums that pertains to what I do. I do urgent care exclusively but I am an empolyee and would never consider opening my own place because I would never want to be trapped forever having to deal with the business side of keeping it open and having to cover if your staff doesn't show up/call in sick, etc. I have 26 weeks off a year and make over 500K as an employed physician with base salary +RVU bonus, no call, etc. I just couldn't see starting from scratch and dealing with the headache.

 

[EMTAB]

Yes, I'm still out there but not much traffic in the forums that pertains to what I do. I do urgent care exclusively but I am an empolyee and would never consider opening my own place because I would never want to be trapped forever having to deal with the business side of keeping it open and having to cover if your staff doesn't show up/call in sick, etc. I have 26 weeks off a year and make over 500K as an employed physician with base salary +RVU bonus, no call, etc. I just couldn't see starting from scratch and dealing with the headache.

Teach me your ways! Where do I find a job that good??

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Teach me your ways! Where do I find a job that good??

Unless the patient volume is insanely high, that is the most unicorn urgent care job I have ever heard of.

 

[NRAI2001]

Unless the patient volume is insanely high, that is the most unicorn urgent care job I have ever heard of.

I ve heard of RVU docs making this kinda of $$. Though most are working 3-4 days a week with 10-12hr shifts. I m not sure if he is counting weekends and random days off in the 26 weeks off portion.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I ve heard of RVU docs making this kinda of $$. Though most are working 3-4 days a week with 10-12hr shifts. I m not sure if he is counting weekends and random days off in the 26 weeks off portion.

Sure, with very high volumes

 

[Hollow Knight]

i think with the growth of reddit this forum has died down considerably. bluedog also deactivated his profile and he was a great source of info. We have cabinbuilder and a couple of old timers keeping it down but the posts/questions themselves are very sparse nowadays.

in reality this is a better place than reddit in terms of keeping laypeople out, but the youngins havent been able to find it

I'm a "youngin" who remembers BlueDog. Also read posts by @VA Hopeful Dr , @cabinbuilder , @Sardonix in college and medical school (I'm probably forgetting somebody)

You guys do good in the world! You just don't always hear about it. I have med school classmates who knew about SDN, but most people don't make accounts, they just read stuff.

Of course Reddit is kind of the thing now, but the fact that users aren't verified freaks me out a bit. I see some nonsense on there sometimes written by "MDs." I use Reddit as well but I find SDN more trustworthy and point IRL premeds that I know to this website.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Teach me your ways! Where do I find a job that good??

Live in a city where no one wants to live in.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I ve heard of RVU docs making this kinda of $$. Though most are working 3-4 days a week with 10-12hr shifts. I m not sure if he is counting weekends and random days off in the 26 weeks off portion.

I have a base salary plus RVU bonus. My schedule is set, I work Thur, Friday. Monday, Tues, Wed. Then I have 7 days off. It repeats indefinitely. I don't have random days off. I have a set schedule. I do work 12 hour shifts on the days that I work, most days 13 with the charting. Yes, its very high volume. I see a minimum of 50 every shift.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Unless the patient volume is insanely high, that is the most unicorn urgent care job I have ever heard of.

I wouldn't lie about my schedule. I have no reason to.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I wouldn't lie about my schedule. I have no reason to.

I didn't mean that to sound like I was accusing you of lying, my apologies if it came across that way.

If we assume only 10 days of work per month and let's average patients per day to 60. 2 wRVU per patient you're at 14k wrvu. That should have you breaking 500k.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I didn't mean that to sound like I was accusing you of lying, my apologies if it came across that way.

If we assume only 10 days of work per month and let's average patients per day to 60. 2 wRVU per patient you're at 14k wrvu. That should have you breaking 500k.

Not every month is equal, June for me is 12 days (1,2,3,11,12,15,16,17,25,26,29,30, 7/1). Yes, that's pretty close. This past year, I didn't pick up any extra and was at $460K so a little under. But the days I do work its fast and busy all day long.

 

[Make Or Break]

@cabinbuilder and @VA Hopeful Dr
I love how you both were inspirations for me as premed and now I’m 4 years out of residency doing emergency and hospitalist as FM trained. Thank you both, you probably don’t even know or realize the inspiration you both had for me with all your replies and comments.

 

[cabinbuilder]

@cabinbuilder and @VA Hopeful Dr
I love how you both were inspirations for me as premed and now I’m 4 years out of residency doing emergency and hospitalist as FM trained. Thank you both, you probably don’t even know or realize the inspiration you both had for me with all your replies and comments.

that's very nice of you to say. I'm glad you are happy with your career path.

 

[Joshua Behlmann]

Hey guys, been doing primary care at a FQHC for about 7 years now. I do a ton of procedures daily in addition to seeing many primary care and urgent care like visits.

Recently been interested in opening an Urgent care with a buddy of mine. Any experiences or opinions on this? Any tips or things to look into for this? I am in California for reference.

Thank you guys

From my experience in urgent care and medical operations, I’d focus early on building strong workflows, an efficient staffing model, and a clear clinical identity. Patient flow, team culture, and referral relationships often determine long-term success.

Wishing you the best as you explore this opportunity.

 

[FrustratedFamDoc]

The most daunting (to me) aspect of private practice is reimbursement, along with all the other headaches of being a business owner. I would think that invariably, you would have to accept a discount rate compared to larger systems, and keep fighting for it yearly. All it would take is for a major carrier to drop you and you are screwed. Are you ready for the sleepless nights that come with slow clinic days/weeks? Paying back startup capital loans? Meeting payroll? Advertising? Billing? EMR? What would be your value proposition as to why patients should choose your clinic over others? If you go cash pay only, can you keep the lights on charging no more than a typical copay? Would you have health insurance through your spouse? What if 3 new clinics open a few miles from you and the market is now saturated? If you decide to close a barely or not surviving practice, will there be a buyer or will you have to file bankruptcy? How does tail coverage for something like that work?

I’m not trying to knock your idea so please don’t take it as such, but being a small business owner in a very competitive industry can be fraught with peril. Think not only will succeed from a medical perspective, but also how it can fail from a business side of things.