Must-know Summertime Urgent Care Marketing Ideas

Seasonality with urgent care patients is a given. Flu, upper respiratory problems, and even accident-prone injuries follow the calendar year predictably. Urgent cares know the ebb and flow of different patient cases well, and we’re coming up on that time of year with slower patient volume.

Flu season is ending, and summer will soon be here. While patient visits decrease, here are a few ideas for keeping your urgent care clinic top of mind for your community this summer.

1. Host Sports (or Camp) Physical Clinics

Summer brings sports and camp! Promote your urgent care’s ability to do complete physical exams and reviews of immunizations required for participation. Host clinics on designated days so you can easily schedule patients in blocks of time.

2. Offering School Physicals Early

Let parents know you provide school physicals early, so they can get in to your urgent care before the rush at the end of the summer. Consider offering a discount or free service for school physicals to encourage return visits by children and their parents.

3. Schedule Employer Services and Wellness Exams

Summer is the perfect time to focus on your employer service offerings. Schedule days for occupational medicine needs for what works best with your clinic hours. Also, you can advertise wellness exam options and free screenings as a part of your employer service offerings.

4. Offer Health Education Opportunities at Summer Events

Fairs and festivals are out in full force in the nice weather. Attend these community events not just as a sponsor with a booth, but also offer classes or sessions with health education information on summer accident and outdoor-related injury prevention.

Extra Summertime Ideas for Clinic Improvement:

1. Open a New Clinic Location

Ready to grow? While visits are slower, consider opening a new clinic location when staff aren’t overwhelmed by visits. Use current patient visit trends to help predict the best months for opening. Train staff at a current clinic for a better feel of what to expect.

2. Have Facility Maintenance Scheduled

Need to update? Prevent interruption to your staff and patients by schedule building maintenance, interior updates, and machine or lab equipment changes during slow hours. This will help staff familiarize themselves with new updates without hindering workflow.

3. Train Staff and Attend Industry Conferences

No better time to work on training then when things are slower. Focus on reviewing workflow and procedures to perfect the entire patient experience from check-in to discharge. Summer is also a great time to attend vendor educational opportunities and industry conferences.

Summer may slow your urgent care’s patient volume, depending on your clinic location. But it’s the perfect time to take advantage of getting some improvement projects done—and advertising summer-related services to keep visit numbers level.

Have your own ideas for summertime marketing or clinic improvements? Share your tips in the comments.