As CEO of the Urgent Care Association, Horwitz knows the industry is booming. Its market size has doubled in 10 years, as patients, particularly younger ones, are drawn to the convenience of the same-day appointments and extended hours offered by the walk-in clinics.
In fact, QuikTrip had been providing primary care services to its own employees for years, through third parties and eventually at its own clinics. Five years ago, longtime"QuikTripper" Brice Habeck was tasked with leading a team to figure out how the company could offer such medical services to the general public, too. His team quickly realized that urgent care had a lot in common with their retail spaces.
QuikTrip is not the first company to see potential in the urgent care industry. Private equity firms have been investing in urgent care's consumer-friendly niche for over a decade. And nearly half of urgent cares are affiliated with hospital systems—which often see urgent care as a front door for bringing in new patients while also taking some burden off their busy emergency rooms.
"It's kind of like the 'build it and they will come' of health care," said Griffith, adding that even though the clinics may not decrease wait times long-term or reduce costs, they are getting patients seen."There is a huge problem with unmet care in the United States. And so ostensibly, these clinics are making a dent into that problem as well."
Gas stations are accustomed to competing over customers by offering something special. QuikTrip, for example, was recently ranked ninth on a list of best gas station brands in America that noted QT's"beloved" made-to-order food, such as breakfast tacos. Habeck said he thinks patients today are open to a more transactional approach in health care as well.
On a recent Friday afternoon, Billy Rohling and Amy Shaver stood waiting for their ride home in the mostly empty parking lot of a MedWise at the same exit as a QT off Interstate Highway 244 in Tulsa. Rohling, 56, remembers when this corner of Admiral Place and Sheridan Road was a shopping center with tenants like J.C. Penney Co. and a five-and-dime called TG&Y.