American Family Care opened its 300th location last month in North Carolina, with the brand aiming for 500 urgent care clinics by 2025.
The goal of reaching 500, according to AFC President Randy Johansen, is to build new gateways to healthcare in areas where people don’t have many options.
“I think access to good health care is still an issue, not only across the United States, but in the world,” Johansen said. “There’s multiple areas where the issue isn’t whether the health care is good quality, it’s the access to the care. As we look at our growth, that’s where we look at, the areas where we can fill a gap in areas without access.”
American Family Care President Randy Johansen.
AFC opened 43 new locations in 2022 and intends to open more than 60 next year. Of the 300 centers open, 79 are company-owned while 221 are franchised.
Some of those franchised units are owned and operated by Dave Adams, a franchisee in the Boston area. Adams opened his first location 10 years ago, wanting to create an urgent care business after a situation where one of his children needed treatment.
“I have three kids and about 11 years ago our 2-year-old daughter had an ear infection,” Adams said. “We ended up spending six hours in the ER.”
After that incident, Adams said he began researching brands and learned about AFC, which he decided to open despite not coming from the medical field.
“I’m an operations person, I’m not a physician, but I do understand the efficiencies of an operating model,” Adams said. “My background lends itself to that, but I knew nothing about healthcare. I could not have done this alone without AFC. I needed the system and the processes our parent company has in place.”
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Today, Adams owns and operates four AFC centers, with plans for more in the future. He said knowing lives are being saved thanks to the care provided has made ownership a rewarding experience.
“The franchisees are individuals who are operating their clinics every day,” Adams said. “We make a difference because we’re hands on and engaged. It’s incredibly time and labor intensive… but it lets you do well financially while doing good for the community.
American Family Care Franchisee Dave Adams.
Johansen said franchisees like Adams are the brand’s “secret sauce.”
“Franchisees are part of the community,” Johansen said. “They’re the ones who are able to build up that community relationship.”
Across all units, 1,500 in-network physicians care for more than 6 million patients per year. On the ground level, Adams said units are open every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., requiring between four and seven people to run the clinic efficiently per shift.
In addition to urgent care, Johansen said AFC clinics are also open to those who need primary care.
“We take care of patients’ needs, with both acute and chronic issues,” Johansen said. “There’s a misnomer that we don’t take care of Medicare patients, but we see them for primary care on an ongoing basis in all of our facilities on a regular basis, not just for acute episodic care.”
To open an AFC location, the initial investment range is between $114,500 and $1.5 million.