St. Peter’s and Wellnow joining to expand reach
Convenience of urgent care facilities key to $18B industry’s growth
St. Peter’s Health Partners is entering into a joint venture agreement with a fast-growing chain of urgent care centers that will just about double its urgent care presence in the Capital Region.
The agreement with Wellnow Urgent Care, a chain of 36 urgent-care facilities across New York and Illinois, was announced Tuesday at the chain’s Niskayuna location. The organizations will share ownership of their existing Capital Region locations while
bringing several new sites on board for a total of approximately 10 to 12 sites in Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Schoharie counties. The process, which also involves rebranding existing sites to reflect the partnership, should take about 18 months, officials said.
“Through our work with Wellnow Urgent Care, we will improve access to urgent care across the Capital Region and help ensure our patients are receiving the right care, in the right place at the right time,” said Dr. James Reed, CEO of St. Peter’s Health Partners.
St. Peter’s currently boasts six urgent care centers in the Capital Region, with several dating back to before the large health system was formed in 2011 through a merger of three smaller systems.
According to Dr. Steven Hanks, chief clinical officer at St. Peter’s, the health system has been interested in expanding its footprint for a while but was hesitant about the large capital investment that would require. A joint venture agreement, he said, lessened the risk.
“Capital is very tight, and we have aging facilities that are very capital-intense,” he said. “So we were looking for strategies that would get us to market quickly, without having to expend a ton of capital to build out new sites.”
At the same time that St. Peter’s was searching for an urgent care partner, Wellnow was expanding its presence across New York. Founded in 2011 under the name Five Star Urgent Care, the chain began operations in western New York and quickly spread into central New York before undergoing a rebrand to Wellnow.
Last year, it entered the Capital Region market with two new centers in Hudson and Niskayuna. This summer, it announced plans to open in Halfmoon.
“St. Peter’s Health Partners shares our commitment to supplying patient-centered urgent medical care in areas where access to such care may be limited,” Wellnow founder and president John Radford said. “The future is bright, and our unified network represents the very best in urgent care delivery for our patients.”
The two organizations are planning to relocate several existing St. Peter’s locations, which are currently co-located with physicians’ practices, to more visible sites in high-traffic areas, Hanks said.
“I would describe our existing urgent cares as urgent care 1.0,” he said. “Many of them grew out of existing practice sites, and we wanted them to look more like the modern freestanding urgent cares you see today, which almost resemble Apple stores.”
The $18 billion urgent care industry has seen rapid growth in the past decade as patients are increasingly seeking out convenient care at f lexible hours.
The walk-in facilities provide quick, convenient care for issues that don’t rise to the level of the emergency room — like colds, flu, sprains and cuts — but that may require immediate attention that primary care providers are unable to give outside of office hours.