Questions for Dr. Stern
About Your Urgent Care Center
49. To whom it may concern: I was wondering if there is any way that I am able to obtain records regarding the number of patients an average urgent care physician see per shift. Thank you.
We have not gathered these statistics in a formal survey. However, from my experience with urgent care physicians throughout the country, physician workloads can be very variable. At some urgent care centers, physicians see only 20 patients per 12-hour shift; physicians at other urgent care centers see 100 patients or more per shift. In general, an urgent care center can not break even unless it sees at least 30-35 patients per day. In the centers I work with, we generally look to add a PA to a physicians shift when the average physician workload exceeds 60-70 patients per 12-hour shift.
