How to Grow Urgent Care Occupational Medicine in a Suburban Setting

When trying to grow your market share in occupational medicine, it’s important to consider the demographics of the potential clients and the area surrounding your urgent care center.

Most cities have a fair degree of economic segregation—with heavy industry clustered near freeways, water, rail and airports; government and finance in downtown settings; and white-collar industries more toward the suburbs. Meanwhile, roughly 75 percent of urgent care centers are located in suburban settings.

The 2014 Benchmarking Survey from the Urgent Care Association showed about 14 percent of total urgent care revenue comes from occupational medicine (which is a combination of workers comp and employer services).

So there’s room for growth in this service area, and demographically it makes sense for urgent care centers to try to attract nearby white-collar companies as clients. Most businesses needing occupational medicine services in the suburban areas will be big box retail, assisted living centers and municipal agencies (such as police, fire and school workers).

Here are some tips for recruiting these white collar businesses for occupational medicine:

• Start the relationship at the local level with someone from your urgent care center, reaching out to the local champion for the box store or other business.
• Find out what kind of data they want collected, what reports will be requested, and how often. Don’t assume you understand their needs or expectations since each employer’s situation is different.
• Get the local champion for the business to introduce you to corporate team members so you can better understand (and meet the needs of) their company-wide initiatives and programs.

The services to focus on for these occupational medicine clients will be slightly different. Main programs will likely center on health and wellness programs, and an emphasis on office ergonomic assessments (versus the traditional safety and compliance assessments).

The major issues for these clients will likely be early intervention, workspace assessments (including computer heights), and the use of standup computers. Substance checks for pre-employment and annual compliance will also be major drivers.

Build a program that caters to the needs of these businesses, rather than relying on traditional programs, to tie into the nearby market and grow occupational medicine at your urgent care center.