Hospital systems are using acquisitions and joint ventures with urgent-care chains to build out patient access points in their markets that are a lower-cost alternative to emergency rooms for cuts, sprains and flu.
Tacoma Wash.-based MultiCare Health System, a five-hospital not-for-profit, added 14 urgent-care clinics to the 15 centers it already operated in the Puget Sound area when it bought Immediate Clinic Seattle in September.
