Urgent Care Start-up Fall Mini-Conference
Thursday, October 15, 2026: 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Join us Thursday evening for cocktails and dinner at Gibsons Steakhouse — a Chicago legend since 1989, famous for its USDA Prime steaks, oversized martinis, and the kind of old-school supper-club energy that's made it a staple of the city's dining scene for decades.
Friday, October 16, 2026: 8:00am to 5:00pm
Session 1: Urgent Care Industry Overview & Business Planning
Alan Ayers, President, Urgent Care Consultants Heather Real, Senior Consultant, Urgent Care Consultants
This session provides a commanding view of the urgent care industry's landscape and turns your vision for a clinic into a concrete development plan. We'll explore 25 years of profitable growth, dissect key market trends shaping the future — like the rapid expansion into rural areas — and simplify the core economics that drive a successful practice. From there, we'll map the entire development journey from initial market analysis and site selection through financing and lease execution, demystifying the complex timelines and payer contracting hurdles that stand between you and opening day.
Objectives: In this session, you will learn to...
- Identify current growth drivers in the urgent care market, including new patient populations, payers, and untapped geographic opportunities.
- Master the basic economic formula of urgent care (Volume × Rate) and grasp how critical factors like unutilized provider capacity directly impact your bottom line.
- Recognize the common traits of urgent care centers that achieve sustained growth, such as maintaining full clinical capabilities and treating higher-acuity patients.
- Differentiate between various ownership models, including independent start-ups, private equity partnerships, and hospital affiliations, to choose the right path for you.
- Outline the complete urgent care development process, from the first market analysis and site selection through financing and lease execution.
- Anticipate the critical timelines for launching your startup, including the essential 4–6 months for build-out and the crucial 10–12 months needed for payer credentialing.
- Navigate the complexities of payer contracting, including the impact of your medical director's board certification and the challenges of opening before major contracts are in place.
- Create a clear workplan of required tasks and understand the key decisions that will keep your project on time and on budget.
Session 2: Data Driven Approaches to Site Analysis
Jim Garrett, Vice President, National Urgent Care Realty
Choosing the right location is the single most important decision you will make, and in today's competitive market, guessing is not an option. This session will arm you with a powerful, data-driven methodology to pinpoint the perfect site for your urgent care center. You will learn to move beyond simple demographics and leverage sophisticated tools, including psychographic profiles and competitive mapping, to uncover hidden opportunities and select a location primed for high patient volume from the day you open your doors.
Objectives: In this session, you will learn to...
- Execute a top-down market analysis that identifies promising underserved communities by evaluating factors like population density, growth trends, and the ideal ratio of residents to urgent care centers.
- Leverage psychographic data to understand the behaviors and motivations of your target patients, ensuring your clinic is located precisely where a health-conscious, convenience-seeking population lives and works.
- Assess the competitive landscape with a strategic eye, learning how to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of nearby rivals and identify prime locations that "out-position" them for market dominance.
- Identify the key physical attributes of a winning site, including critical factors like exceptional visibility, prominent signage, high traffic counts, and convenient accessibility that drive walk-in volume.
Session 3: Urgent Care Financials — Pro Forma, Revenue Cycle & Cash Flow Management
Alan Ayers, President, Urgent Care Consultants Heather Real, Senior Consultant, Urgent Care Consultants
A rock-solid financial plan is the lifeblood of your startup — and the revenue cycle is what keeps it alive. This session decodes the essential components of a financial pro forma, teaching you to confidently project revenue, budget for major expenses, and calculate your total capital needs. You will also master the life of a medical claim — tracing its five-phase journey from patient check-in through clinical documentation, coding, and final payment — and learn the front-desk, point-of-care, and back-office processes that protect every dollar you've worked to earn.
Objectives: In this session, you will learn to...
- Itemize the key components of a startup investment, including build-out, FF&E, one-time startup expenses, and working capital.
Explore the primary lending options for new physician-operators, such as SBA loans and specialized loan programs designed for practice startups. - Utilize the urgent care revenue formula, accounting for contractual allowances and bad debt, to accurately project your net revenue per visit.
- Implement crucial front-desk processes that prevent downstream problems, including insurance verification, correct co-pay collection, and securing a credit card on file before a patient's willingness to pay drops by 75% after leaving the office.
- Optimize documentation at the point of care by mastering E/M coding guidelines, using specific diagnosis codes, and creating clear records that can defend your billed level to any payer.
Establish an effective back-office strategy by working claim rejections daily, actively managing accounts receivable before timely filing limits expire, and properly handling out-of-network claims. - Monitor the financial pulse of your practice by tracking key metrics like Days Sales Outstanding, identifying denial trends, and ensuring billing practices are compliant with the complex, ever-changing rules of each payer.
Session 4: Urgent Care Marketing & Ancillary Services
Alan Ayers, President, Urgent Care Consultants Heather Real, Senior Consultant, Urgent Care Consultants
Discover how to attract a steady flow of patients and make your clinic the top choice in your community. This session details how to build a memorable brand and execute a marketing plan that blends powerful grassroots outreach with proven digital tactics. You'll also learn to strategically add high-value ancillary services, like occupational medicine, to boost your revenue stream without chasing unprofitable fads.
Objectives: In this session, you will learn to...
- Launch a pre-opening marketing plan that builds buzz, including selecting a great name, developing a professional website, and planning a community-focused grand opening.
- Deploy a diverse mix of marketing tactics, from traditional brand-building with billboards and direct mail to modern digital strategies like SEO and social media.
- Select profitable ancillary services that build upon your core urgent care capabilities, such as employer-paid services and expanded in-house lab testing.
- Dominate local search results by understanding the factors that drive Google ranking, including geographic proximity and the quantity of positive patient reviews.
Session 5: Practicing Urgent Care Medicine
Andrea Giamalva, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Experity
Step into the role of a clinical leader and discover what it takes to thrive in the fast-paced urgent care setting. This course moves beyond diagnostics to focus on the essential skills that separate a good provider from a highly effective one, showing you how to master the delicate balance of quality care, customer service, and patient flow. You will learn how to lead your clinical team, optimize every minute of the day, and use data to create a culture of efficiency and clinical excellence.
Objectives: In this session, you will learn to...
- Master the art of patient flow by learning how to strategically manage multiple patients at once and why arriving on time is the most critical part of the day.
- Become the "Quarterback" of your clinical team by developing the communication and leadership skills necessary to guide your staff and ensure patient care is never negatively impacted.
- Utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) like door-to-door times and patient satisfaction scores to manage benchmarks and continuously improve the quality and speed of care.
- Define your clinical culture by learning how to set clear expectations for providers during the hiring process and establish standard operating procedures that drive consistent performance.
Session 6: Urgent Care Operations, Staffing, Lab, & X-Ray
Alan Ayers, President, Urgent Care Consultants Heather Real, Senior Consultant, Urgent Care Consultants
Operational efficiency is the engine of both patient satisfaction and profitability. This session is your blueprint for achieving excellence through streamlined processes, intelligent staffing, and the right technology. You'll learn to build a scalable operating model that delivers a consistent, high-quality, and hassle-free patient experience every time.
Objectives: In this session, you will learn to...
- Implement a flexible, volume-based staffing model and understand key efficiency benchmarks, such as a provider's patients per hour.
- Establish operational guiding principles of "no wait, no waste, no hassle" to dramatically boost patient throughput and satisfaction scores.
- Manage the requirements for in-house lab and x-ray services, including CLIA certification, equipment costs, and state-specific licensing regulations.
- Cultivate a culture of teamwork and cross-utilization, empowering your team to work together to improve efficiency and create an unbeatable patient experience.
Session 7: Experiences Learned in 35+ Years of Ownership — Hard-Won Lessons and Mistakes to Avoid
David Stern, MD, Founder and CEO, Experity
Get ready for an unfiltered look into the past, present, and future of urgent care from one of the industry's true pioneers, Dr. David Stern. In this session, Dr. Stern draws upon more than 35 years of personal experience as a physician and successful multi-site urgent care owner to share the invaluable, hard-won lessons that can't be found in a textbook. You'll hear the inside story of the industry's evolution, discover the foundational principles of business and clinical success that have stood the test of time, and leave armed with the foresight to sidestep the common pitfalls that derail new urgent care centers.
Objectives: In this session, you will learn to...
- Gain a rare, firsthand perspective on the evolution of the urgent care industry from a leader who has helped shape it from its earliest days.
- Absorb the core operational philosophies for success, including the "Clockwork" methodology for patient flow that focuses on efficiency, quality, and an outstanding patient experience.
- Understand the critical role of urgent care-specific technology in solving clinical bottlenecks, as told by the founder who built an E-MR out of necessity for his own clinics.
- Prevent common financial-planning mistakes, such as underestimating build-out costs or failing to secure enough working capital for the first year.
- Avoid critical errors in ownership structure, such as not having a designated physician on paper to satisfy state laws and payer requirements.
- Sidestep operational missteps like unnecessarily referring out profitable procedures, and dodge marketing blunders like relying only on word-of-mouth or promoting ancillary services at the expense of your core urgent care business.