title: Community characteristics associated with where urgent care centers are located: a cross-sectional analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the community characteristics associated with non-hospital-based urgent care centres wherever they are located.
  
  
  METHODS
  National cross-sectional study evaluating the association between non-hospital-based urgent care centers, and their demographic characteristics in a community, using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regressions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Communities in the USA with non-hospital-based urgent care centers, as identified using a 2014 national database from the Urgent Care Association of America.
  
  
  METHODS
  31,022 communities encompassing 6898 urgent care centers across the USA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Presence of a non-hospital-based urgent care center within a community.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Communities with non-hospital-based urgent care centers are urban (75.7% with vs 22.2% without; p<0.001 across rural urban commuting area levels), and are located in areas with higher income levels (38.6% in highest quartile with vs 22.3% without; p<0.001 across quartiles) and higher levels of private insurance (29.6% in highest quartile with vs 23.9% without; p<0.001 across quartiles).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While the growth of the urgent care industry may have other promising implications, policymakers should recognise that it may exacerbate disparities in access to acute care faced by poorer, uninsured patients, and may also have financial implications for providers that are providing overlapping services, such as emergency departments and primary care practices.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Sidney T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Renee Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Hsia
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017057:Medically Uninsured; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013383:Suburban Population; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: access to care; acute care; disparities; urgent care