Image courtesy Steelcase.
Upon entry to Onus IV Hydration, customers will notice that the space isn’t akin to a typical clinic environment. IV bags filled with a vitamin solution are suspended from the ceiling with climbing ropes and carabiners. The Onus brand, electric green with topography lines inspired by the owners’ passion for mountain biking, fills the space. Technicians who administertreatments are encouraged to leave their scrubs at home. Although the care being delivered isn’t traditional, this retail trend of strongly branded “rollout” facilities has become a model that healthcare systems have begun to acknowledge and use to their strength.
Urgent care clinics and similar healthcare delivery models scattered throughout the country number nearly 10,000 and perform care to roughly 160 million patients yearly. Similarities between these clinics and retail and restaurant franchise chains are numerous. Accessibility to customers, consistency in care and branding, and affordabilityare franchise models that have inspired the growth of this outward healthcare movement. Clinics are more flexible to visit then with a primary care provider and less costly than a trip to the emergency room when patients have less serious ailments like a pesky ear ache or sore throat.