It is all about location: the performance of urgent care centers by proximity to a general hospital

Abstract Background: The gradual increase of referrals to the busy emergency departments (ED) raises concerns regarding the potential negative effect on the quality of medical treatment and level of patients' satisfaction. Urgent care centers (UCC) provide an alternative to the ED for non-life saving medical conditions. This study aimed to compare the rate of admissions, reasons for referrals and patient’s satisfaction between UCC by distance from the nearest ED. Methods: This cross-sectional study included all medical records of four UCCs between 2017 and 2020. Rates of admission, reasons for referrals, and patients' satisfaction were compared between UCCs that were close to ED and UCCs far from ED. Results: The study included 216,903 patients in an average age 32.4 ±24.4 years. Most of the referrals were independent, with 37.7% of the referrals being on weekends. The average time for triage and time spent in UCC were approximately 5.3 minutes and 62.8 minutes, respectively. The proportion of residents arriving at UCC in cities with ED was 14.4% with a level of satisfaction of 91.5%, compared with UCC in cities without ED which were 23.7% and 84.4%, respectively. UCC in northern Israel treated more patients with trauma/injury (33.0%) than UCC in southern Israel (28.2%). Conclusions:UCCs in cities without ED receive higher volume of patients, while their level of satisfaction was lower. UCC provide an alternative to ED in non-lifesaving medical conditions.