Updating Primary Care for an Urgent Care World

Urgent care has rapidly expanded as a convenient alternative to both emergency departments and traditional primary care. Patients increasingly choose urgent care for its accessibility, shorter wait times, and flexibility. However, this shift exposes critical shortcomings in primary care-including barriers to scheduling and diminishing after-hours availability. As patients bypass primary care, they miss out on longitudinal relationships and high-value comprehensive care, which not only threatens health outcomes but contributes to rising healthcare costs. To remain relevant, primary care must adapt by integrating the convenience and responsiveness that patients seek in urgent care. This includes modern scheduling systems, virtual and team-based visits, and in-house diagnostics. As guiding principles in this shift, primary care should remain anchored by what defines it: first contact, longitudinality, continuity, comprehensiveness, coordination, person-centeredness, and community orientation. Rather than resist change, primary care must evolve to meet patients' current day demands. Doing so could revitalize the field and reaffirm its essential role in the healthcare system.