At Solv, we’ve closely tracked the rapid rise of convenient healthcare providers across the US over the past decade. These convenient options have grown to include retail clinics found in drugstores, primary care offices seeing walk-in patients, specialists, and dental providers offering same-day care appointments, doctors treating patients through on-demand telemedicine, and of course, urgent care centers.
According to the Urgent Care Association, in 2018, new urgent care clinics opening their doors to patients grew at a rate of 8% year-over-year. This convenient healthcare expansion is delivering on what more and more consumers are demanding from healthcare: greater access, control, and transparency. This year alone, over 170 million visits will be managed by urgent care centers.
As more convenient same-day options become available to patients, confusion or concern about the quality of convenient healthcare options often arise. That’s why today Solv and the Urgent Care Association are announcing a collaboration to increase consumer awareness of Certified and high-quality Accredited urgent care centers for 12 million visitors who use Solv to find, book or manage their convenient care visit each year.
As part of the joint effort, UCA is joining the Solv Data Connect program and will be syncing the full list of Certified and Accredited urgent care center locations with Solv’s national urgent care directory. Each Certified or Accredited clinic has its designations clearly featured on their Solv clinic profile page, helping patients quickly identify quality same-day healthcare options. Additionally, a new section of the site dedicated to accredited urgent care centers has been created allowing consumers to quickly browse and find a local quality convenient care provider
"What we know for certain is that consumers want both quality and convenience when they are selecting a place of care for themselves and their families," said Heather Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Solv. "We are excited to display the UCA Accreditation and Certification designations on Solv. Based on our data, when a patient finds a high-quality urgent care center on Solv, 97% of them visit that same location again."
“Increasing Urgent Care quality standards is a top priority for the Urgent Care Association,” says Laurel Stoimenoff, CEO of the Urgent Care Association. “Through our collaboration with Solv, urgent care centers now have a powerful way to broadcast their commitment to quality healthcare to the millions of patients who use Solv.”
When patients see the UCA Accreditation logo on a Solv clinic profile page, it designates that these centers have received dual Certification and Accreditation through the Urgent Care Association and they can rely on the quality of care and scope of services being delivered.
More details about UCA Certification and Accreditation:
UCA Certification. Identifies the specific scope of services offered. Centers earning this designation have met nationally standardized criteria that include accepting walk-ins, open 7 days a week, having onsite X-ray and labs, among other requirements.
UCA Accreditation. Includes the scope of service requirements covered by Certification, as well as additional standards of patient safety and quality. An onsite survey is conducted, where safety and quality measures are reviewed such as patient care processes, physical resources, patient privacy, in addition to the center's scope of care.
"UCA Accreditation is one important way we ensure alignment with top quality care standards for the children we see in our offices," said Dr. Christina Johns, Senior Medical Advisor at PM Pediatrics. “Highlighting our UCA Accreditation on Solv is a signal to parents who use Solv to book online at our 51 locations that we are committed to maintaining these standards at every urgent care visit.”
To learn more about the collaboration between Solv and the Urgent Care Association, or Solv’s Data Connect platform, email Solv at [email protected].
Learn more about Certification or Accreditation through the Urgent Care Association.