Creating an urgent care startup is no easy feat, especially when there are so many things that you need to care about and that could harm your startup as a whole.
If we talk website wise, you have to think about your SEO, how your website looks, its performance and so much more.
When more than 53% of all website traffic comes from organic searches, it makes total sense why you would want to invest time and effort into your urgent care website and its SEO.
And there is a lot more to consider if we step out of web development and focus on other aspects such as financial challenges and regulatory hurdles.
Far too often we see medical professionals and investors rush into the urgent care startup process with no plans or strategies in place. This only leads to mistakes that inevitably destroys the urgent care startup altogether.
Below we’ll go over 20 of the biggest urgent care startup mistakes to look out for and that can lead to bigger issues down the line.
Trying to build your own custom startup website but don’t know where to start? Let us help.
Our Top 20 Urgent Care Startup Mistakes
This list is in no particular order.
Fix all of the mistakes below as soon as possible, as they can lead to both legal and financial issues in the future.
Make sure to take notes and double check that your urgent care startup has none of these mistakes if you want to thrive this year.
1. Underestimating Budget Requirements
Having a good idea for an urgent care startup is only the first step of the journey. Knowing how to finance it and where to get the money is the second and most important step of any startup.
Every single startup needs capital if they want to achieve any idea they are proposing.
This is especially true for high-cost industries such as the healthcare industry. Not only will you need to spend a lot of money on your startup operations themselves, but you will also need to spend money on legal papers.
Not to mention the cost of marketing and staffing.
Knowing what budget your startup needs before starting this journey is crucial.
It doesn’t have to be the budget over the next 5 years either, simply make a conservative estimate of the capital needed to start and run your startup for the next 6-12 months.
This budget should have a cushion in case something goes wrong or something unexpected happens.
2. Trying to Save Money on Legal Advice
We get it, saving money is vital, especially when starting out.
And while we do agree that saving money is important, there are certain parts where you shouldn’t cut corners or try to save as much money as possible.
The biggest and most important one is when it comes to legal advice.
While hiring a lawyer might seem like a waste of money, the reality is that they can set your startup up for success.
Having all of your legal documents ready and organized is necessary for startups and even more important for an urgent care startup.
Not only will they help you with legal documentation, but they can help you understand deals with investors and help you pick one that suits your startup the best.
3. Not Caring About Regulatory and Licensing Requirements
Healthcare is by far one of the most regulated sectors in the world, especially in the United States.
From specific state licensure and CLIA certification to OSHA standards and HIPAA compliance, there are a lot of requirements you need to know about.
Mistakes of any kind with these can result in penalties, delayed openings and even complete shutdowns if the infractions are severe.
Make sure you’re always working with an attorney that specializes in healthcare so that none of these issues occur.
4. Not Having a Clear Industry Model
Now knowing exactly what you’re going to offer an urgent care startup is a giant mistake that can lead to lawsuits if not handled properly.
Knowing exactly what type of healthcare company you want to be is vital. Adding “primary urgent care” into your website without providing any of those services can lead to big issues down the line.
Knowing what type of industry model you’re going for will also help you create marketing strategies that better suit it.
5. Not Picking Good Staff
Every patient who goes for an appointment is looking for a competent health professional that knows what they’re doing and saying. Your urgent care startup can face serious backlash if the people you hired don’t know what they’re doing.
Make sure that you know exactly who you’re hiring. Double check their background and credentials. Call their past employers and make sure that they are a good fit for what you’re trying to do.
This goes not only for medical professionals too. The front-desk and medical assistants should also be a good fit for your urgent care startup.
6. Weak Branding
This is a common mistake we see all the time. While focusing on your services is of utmost importance, it doesn’t mean you should ignore everything else.
The first thing people see when searching for your urgent care startup is your branding. If it lacks quality and professionalism then people will assume that your services are also lackluster.
Make sure that your urgent care startup has a proper brand voice, value proposition, identity, or you risk not standing out at all.
Even if your services are the best in your field, it won’t matter if people ignore it due to your branding.
Branding is important for every company, no matter the industry, niche or sector.
7. Not Caring About a Digital Strategy
When more than 70% of patients look on Google for urgent care related issues, it’s a no-brainer that you need a digital strategy. By not focusing on core strategies such as SEO, social media, and PPC, you are virtually invisible to the world.
While starting your startup journey, make sure that you set time aside to think about your digital marketing strategies and how you want to approach them as a whole.
Digital marketing agencies are a great investment, especially when it comes to complicated industries such as healthcare.
All it takes is one wrong post for your reputation to come crumbling down.
8. No EHR Integration
Not implementing and using an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system can severely hurt your urgent care startup. While the upfront cost of an EHR can seem steep, the benefits greatly outweigh the negatives.
With an EHR, you can support clinical documentation, billing, scheduling, and even patient follow-ups. Ensure you choose the system designed for urgent care, and also obtain lab and billing partner integrations.
Explore how we increased Deep 6 AI’s page views by 37% with a brand new web design.
9. Ignoring Patient Experience Design
From the moment a patient discovers you on Google to the point they leave your clinic, you should consider every single part before they contact you.
Knowing the exact process they’ll have to go through is perfect since it lets you set up different strategic touchpoints that can help them feel noticed and cared for.
From signage clarity to follow-ups from nurses to ensure everything is going well, you want your patients to feel cared for and heard.
This not only helps shed a good light on their perspective, but they will most likely leave a positive review for your urgent care startup. This will help people decide whether or not they should trust your urgent care startup.
10. Not Having KPIs
It’s difficult to find out how you’re doing if you have no way of measuring your success.
By not setting KPIs, your urgent care startup might be growing or it might be doing worse, and you wouldn’t be able to tell.
This is why it’s vital to monitor certain goals such as return visit rates, revenue per visit, patient satisfaction, and payer reimbursement.
Make sure that you set a reasonable timeframe and a realistic KPI that is obtainable in the timeframe you set for it.
11. Ignoring Patient Feedback
A great way to find out what needs to change is by reading and understanding the issues some patients might have gone through with your urgent care startup.
This is a great way of having real feedback on how people perceive your urgent care startup without having to search for them and ask directly.
Make sure to check how many times certain feedback is given. It’s easy to dismiss one patient providing feedback over something, but it’s hard to ignore multiple patients saying the same thing.
12. Launching Way Too Early
We know that the excitement of launching your startup and making sure your company is finally out there is great. But starting an urgent care startup is a marathon, not a sprint.
Before you launch, you have to make sure that everything is in order and that everything from your website to your services is working properly.
The last thing you need is for people to notice that you rushed or did not work on your website properly.
Don’t rush your launch; take your time to organize strategies and ideas and launch when your urgent care startup is complete.
13. Not Knowing Your Target Audience
Learning what type of patient you are looking for in your urgent care startup is important if you want your marketing strategies to be as good as possible.
Talking to everyone is the same as talking to no one. This is why it is necessary to know what type of audience you want to target.
Is your urgent care startup for a specific type of people? What would they be looking for specifically?
Ideally you want to create a customer persona for your ideal patient, depending on the service you offer.
14. Hiring Too Many People
When starting out, it might seem hard to know how many people you need to hire to work properly. This is why it is very easy to overhire and have too many people for the work you really need to focus on.
It’s better to hire only for core positions for your startup first. This way, you can discover through experience how much extra work you need to do.
15. Not Acquiring your Intellectual Property
Not protecting your IP is a massive mistake that can cost you the entirety of your startup if you’re not careful. Make sure that you are on top of your IPs whenever your urgent care startup innovates or creates a product.
The last thing you want to see is a competitor taking your IP and taking ownership of your idea.
Make sure you talk to your lawyer for anything IP-related so you follow the appropriate steps needed for it.
16. Not Researching Your Competitors
Knowing what other urgent care companies are doing is vital if you want to stand out. By not researching your competitors, you might market the exact same services in the exact same way as they do.
This makes it easy for patients to pick since they will go with the urgent care company that has more reviews or that has been around longer.
Make sure that you have something that makes your urgent care startup stand out from other alternatives. You want it to be enticing without being a lie.
17. Taking Too Long to Launch
While being too eager to launch is bad, the other extreme is also bad. Taking months or years to launch your startup is awful for your capital.
Organizing everything and making sure it’s all working as intended is important, but there comes a point when you have to launch or you’ll start to lose money that wasn’t planned for.
18. Picking the Wrong Location
Knowing in what state or country to launch your urgent care startup is important. What is the healthcare industry looking for there? Is there a central place for your urgent care facility, or would you have to find a place very far away from the city?
Depending on the type of urgent care startup you are, you might need to seriously consider the location.
Patients would rather go to a nearby hospital with fewer reviews than to one that is 30 minutes away with better reviews if there is an emergency.
Learn how we improved C.A.S.E’s direct traffic by over 17% with our SEO services.
19. Not Using Google My Business
Having your Google My Business profile set up and up to date with the exact directions and services provided is necessary.
Without it, people won’t be able to find your urgent care facility when they search for “urgent care nearby.”
Make sure to add as much information to your GMB as possible. From hours open to detailed explanations of what you offer and do.
The more information, the better.
20. Bad Website
Your website is the main place where people go to learn more about your urgent care facilities.
If your website doesn’t look good and professional, then people will decide to go for another urgent care facility instead.
75% people judge a company based on their first impressions of its website. This also goes for the healthcare industry.
This is why it’s vital for your website to look as good as possible and provide as much information as possible.
All while sticking to the specific branding of your urgent care startup.
The overall website speed is also vital for a good website. No one wants to wait for a website to load anymore, especially if it’s an emergency.
Having a lackluster website is the perfect way to lose patients every day. Make sure you take the necessary time to make yours look its best.
Get a Converting Urgent Care Startup Website With Blacksmith
After reviewing these 20 urgent care startup mistakes, you can easily see how implementing a proper marketing strategy and creating a good custom website could avoid many of them.
But we get it, creating a custom website from scratch takes a lot of time and effort that you could be using for other aspects of your urgent care startup.
So what now? That’s where we come in. As a professional digital marketing agency, we are experts in everything related to custom digital strategies.
With our experienced web development specialists, you’ll get a custom website that converts visitors into returning patients.
As a digital marketing agency, we have a group of seasoned web developers and marketers ready to design the perfect custom website for your startup.
We will use all of the modern marketing strategies for the healthcare industry and make sure that your urgent care startup stands out.
Still unsure if this is what your urgent care startup needs?
Don’t worry, click here to schedule a call with us and we’ll audit your startup. This way, we can show you where you might be losing potential patients and what we would do to fix it.
We will also show you the power of a properly built website and how it compares to your main competitors. This way you can have a clear understanding of what a new website would do for your startup and how it could drastically improve your startup as a whole.
