Zocdoc has added urgent care centers to its marketplace to meet the rising demand for medical services at one of the fastest-growing segments of healthcare.
Patients can now book appointments through the platform with urgent care facilities across 22 states and more than 200 locations, with more to be added. Urgent care is one of the fastest-growing categories on Zocdoc, per the company.
“Our aim at Zocdoc is to help every patient find and book every type of care, and this launch reflects the fact that urgent care has become an important part of both a patient’s medical team and the healthcare ecosystem on the whole,” Oliver Kharraz, M.D., Zocdoc founder and CEO, said in a press release.
So far in 2023, the volume of new urgent care facilities on Zocdoc has grown by an average of nearly 40% month over month. Urgent care bookings grow by an average of 80% month over month. The number of urgent care facilities across the country has grown over the past several years. Patient volume has jumped 60% since 2019, and the volume of new centers continues to jump at 7% each year.
“We’ve found that there is no more efficient new patient acquisition channel than Zocdoc,” Elizabeth Stefanishina, director of administration for Rockwell Health Center, said in the announcement. “We joined Zocdoc to increase our visibility and awareness and to drive new patient volume for our new urgent care locations in Astoria, Queens and Red Hook, Brooklyn. In the brief time that we’ve been listed on Zocdoc’s marketplace, it has already delivered on all of this.”
More than half of urgent care appointments on Zocdoc happen within five hours of booking, compared to 7% for non-urgent care appointments. One in four appointments take place after hours, the company said. Younger patients book at a higher rate, with 40% of urgent care bookers in their 20s. A third are in their 30s and more than a quarter are over 40 years old.
The top visit reasons for urgent care bookings include illness, sexually transmitted disease testing and prescriptions, among others.
There is no upfront cost for providers to join Zocdoc. Instead, they pay a one-time fee when a new patient books with them through the platform.