In today’s healthcare ecosystem, convenience is king—and urgent care clinics are wearing the crown. Once considered a stopgap between primary care and the ER, urgent care has evolved into something far more powerful: the new front door to healthcare systems.
That was the core message behind MDRG founder and President Sondra Brown’s 2025 HMPS panel, “Urgent Care as the Front Door.” Joined by leaders from Atlantic Health (Eric Steinberger), Benner Health (Patrick Knauer), and VillageMD (Lisa Slama), the conversation didn’t just recap industry trends—it reframed the role of urgent care in building long-term patient relationships, loyalty, and lifetime value.
The shift toward urgent care isn’t just a preference—it’s a necessity. “34 million consumers don’t have a regular primary care physician,” Brown shared as context. “The 25 to 34-year-old demographic overindexes here, which means their first experience with a health system is often through an urgent care center.”
That makes urgent care a critical moment to make an impression. And increasingly, systems are recognizing this touchpoint as an opportunity for conversion.
“I think the core [of our strategy] is that urgent care is the front door. We’re trying to offer people an alternative way to interact with us that’s not as cumbersome.” – Eric Steinberger, Atlantic Health
VillageMD’s Lisa Slama described the post-COVID evolution of urgent care in real time. “After acquiring CityMD [in late 202], the demand was so high people lined up around the block for COVID testing,” she explained. But as the surge faded and virtual care expanded, CityMD was left asking, “Now what?”
The answer lies in expanding what urgent care can do. Sports physicals, imaging, labs, chronic care triage—if it can be done in a primary care setting, many urgent care locations are learning to handle it. As Slama noted, “We had to get really creative, really quickly.”
At Banner Health, creativity came with connection. Their urgent care model focuses heavily on seamless integration: quick referrals, real-time specialist consultation via Microsoft Teams, and patient follow-up within 24 hours, often before they even leave the clinic.
“You would not necessarily expect that level of clinical review when you go into an urgent care.” – Patrick Knauer, Banner Health
Urgent care visits are short, one-off interactions. So, how can they drive loyalty?
By being the best first impression.
“It’s very difficult to build loyalty at the urgent care level.” Says Knauer. “It’s an extremely transactional healthcare interaction.” But it can still be the front door.
From here, systems can use CRM tools, targeted outreach, and digital nudges to move patients into ongoing relationships. At Atlantic Health, over half of urgent care visitors don’t have a PCP, so every interaction is a conversion opportunity.
“We look at: how many new-to-system people came through? How many follow-up touches can we create in the next year?” – Eric Steinberger, Atlantic Health
“We do a lot of messaging around: ‘Don’t you want to stick with a system that knows who you are already?’” – Lisa Slama, VillageMD
One thing everyone agreed on: urgent care centers are local. Really local. That means understanding not only the market, but the neighborhood, down to schools, sports teams, and walkability. It also means winning in digital.
As Steinberger notes, “80% of people go to Google first when they have a healthcare need.” It’s here, in digital, where the battle for urgent care patients is being fought.
The urgent care landscape will keep changing, but one thing is clear: it’s no longer an afterthought. For healthcare systems hoping to build long-term patient relationships, urgent care is the entry point, the on-ramp, the handshake—and yes, the front door.
As Slama summarized in closing:
“We're not going to be all things to all people, but we're going to make sure that we take care of the patients that we have, that we're driving them to service lines and care that we have access to, and that we're doing right by our patients.”
To learn more about how people are approaching healthcare, contact us or check out our 2025 Healthcare Experience Report.