How to Build an Urgent Care App: The Complete Process

Urgent care apps are an option for patients facing chronic health conditions or any kind of emergency medical conditions. They simply have to book an appointment and they get all the care services immediately. Additionally, ambulance services are just a click away. Urgent care apps have their perks, making them quite sought-after in the healthcare industry. Let’s dive in to find out how to build an urgent care app for healthcare organizations.

Why Build An Urgent Care App?

According to the Precedence Research, the US urgent care apps market size was reported to be $0.67 billion in 2023 and is projected to register a revenue of $8.79 billion by 2032, rising at a CAGR of 33.10 percent from 2023 to 2032 timeframe.

Patients can access healthcare resources easily via an urgent care app or chronic disease management app and address their emergency concerns, thus making them easily accessible and convenient to use. Additionally, The pandemic urged people to switch to digital healthcare services, thus accelerating the use of urgent care apps, telehealth, and remote patient monitoring.

Urgent care apps include features that focus on preventive care such as AI algorithms and medical history, allowing providers to use them to screen patients with serious conditions or chronic conditions. Moreover, the integration of wearables allows urgent care apps to notify providers when a patient is in a critical condition, so they can take quick emergency actions. All of these aspects are bolstering the growth of the urgent care app market in the upcoming years.

Benefits of Having an Urgent Care App

These are some of the benefits that urgent care apps provide to patients and providers:

1. Wide Range of Services: Urgent care apps include medical services for all kinds of diseases, tests, surgeries, and medical conditions. For example, chronic disease screenings, STD screenings, insect and snake bites, burns, X-rays and MRI, allergic reactions, lab facilities, respiratory infections, and more.
2. Timely Care: Instant medical services at the doorstep are provided if a patient uses this app. It cuts out the time spent in waiting rooms. If it’s a code blue patient, then help is offered right away via this application.
3. Convenient and Accessible: Just one click at any time and help is on the way. Urgent care clinics who use the app can be notified about the patient and they can prepare for treatment right away.
4.  Follow-Ups: Urgent care applications include follow-up features that allow providers to check on their patients. Based on the patients’ conditions providers can suggest treatment till they recover.
5. Expert Providers: Patients having specific conditions such as heart disease or arthritis can consult relevant physicians via the urgent care app.

Top Features of an Urgent Care App

1. Appointment Booking

The appointment booking feature ensures that patients skip the waiting line and directly meet the doctor. Plus it is a way to streamline healthcare operations and reduce unnecessary burnout. Automated appointment notifications eliminate no-shows and cancellations.

2. Live Chat with Providers

The live chat option allows patients to have continuous communication with their providers 24/7. Communication is a way to build trust and closeness with a healthcare provider and patient, and it is also a way to enhance patient engagement and improve their health. Live chat features can be used for non-emergency situations such as seasonal colds or minor allergies.

3. Notifications or Reminders

Push notifications keep users on their toes. There’s a reminder for every task added to the urgent care app by the user, for instance, medication intake, appointment bookings, payments, chats, and more. It’s a necessary feature for those who lead a busy life.

4. Payment Gateways

Make sure to include a secure payment gateway system for consultations and treatment offered by providers via the urgent care app. Convenient payment mode such as credit cards makes healthcare accessible.

5. User Authentication

A sign-in process with valid login details helps to keep data safe and secured. Biometrics, strong passwords, and ID are some of the ways to ensure user authentication. An automatic Gmail login can also be an option for a safe sign-in process.

6. Medical History Tab

One of the most important features of any healthcare application is the storage and management of medical records. Patients should have the ability to easily share their symptoms via online triage before a consultation so that healthcare providers know exactly what to expect before the meeting so that they can provide better care.

7. EHR Integration

EHRs store ePHI (Protected Health Information), and its integration allows physicians to access records in one place without having to search for them elsewhere and waste valuable time. EHR is also linked with patient portal apps and is an integral part of a healthcare organization, so its integration with urgent care app assures seamless data exchange.

8. Wearable Integration

You can use APIs from wearables such as FitBit or Apple Watch to capture real-time information and monitor your user’s condition over time. This integration gives healthcare providers real-time information about a patient’s vital signs, activity level, and overall health, improving the quality of their virtual consultations.

9. AI Integrations

A trained AI algorithm can look at a patient’s self-reported symptoms and make a preliminary diagnosis. By using machine learning, the system learns from thousands of cases and uses machine learning to produce more precise results. Artificial intelligence can help identify potential health problems and recommend the next steps for a patient, giving them a referral or sending them to an acute care center right away.

10. Medication Tracking and Refills

Medication tracking involves more than just taking a pill for the 81 million Americans who have two or more diseases, and the 133 million Americans who live with a chronic illness. It becomes essential to preserving health and being able to lead an active and satisfying life. Medication tracking in the digital age has evolved from a weekly pillbox to a smartphone-enabled platform like the urgent care app that provides condition-specific updates and support, along with frequent reminders.

How to Build an Urgent Care App

Careful planning, meticulous attention to detail, and knowledge in both application development and healthcare are necessary while creating an urgent care app. The essential procedures for developing such a healthcare app are broken down as follows:

1. Specify Your Features and Goals: Start by summarizing your urgent care app’s main goals. Choose the essential functions it should provide, like lab result access, telemedicine consultations, symptom checkers, medication refills, appointment scheduling, and interaction with EHR systems.

2. Research and Compliance: Learn as much as you can about the local laws and regulations about healthcare applications. To safeguard the security and privacy of patient data, make sure that laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are followed.

3. UX/UI Design: Create a user-friendly and easy-to-use interface that makes it easy for patients and healthcare providers to use. Make sure the user experience is simple, clear, and accessible.

4. Choosing Tech Stack: Choose the right development and technology stack for your application based on its needs. Think about how it will scale, how secure it will be, and how well it will work with different devices and different operating systems. Consider integrating features such as real-time messaging and video conferencing as well as secure payment processing.

5. Backend Development: Create the backend infrastructure for the application. This includes the servers, database, APIs, and other features such as user authentication, storing data, and communicating between different parts of the application.

6. Frontend Development: Develop the front for the app using the most up-to-date mobile app development frameworks and tools. Make sure the front end is responsive across different screens and devices. Implement the design that was created before, with a focus on providing a smooth experience for users.

7. Testing: Test the app to find and fix any errors, bugs, or usability problems. Do both manual and automated tests to make sure the app works properly and meets the performance requirements.

8. App Release: Deploy and launch the app to the appropriate app stores (i.e. Apple App Store, Google Play Store, etc.).
Ensure compliance with submission guidelines and requirements for each platform. Develop a marketing plan to drive traffic to the app and draw in users (healthcare providers and patients).

9. Continuous Improvement: Monitor user feedback and analytics for insights into how users are using the app and where improvements need to be made. Update and refine the app regularly to meet user needs, technological advances, and the changing healthcare landscape.

10. Compliance and Security Maintenance: Review and update the app regularly to ensure continued compliance with healthcare rules and best practices. Implement measures to protect patient information and maintain user trust.

Cost of Building an Urgent Care App

The cost of healthcare app development can vary greatly depending on a variety of factors, including the complexity of the project, your team size, and the technology you choose to use. Knowing how much you should budget for your urgent care app development project can help you make smart decisions and get the most out of your budget.

Ideally, the cost of building an urgent care app varies between $40,000 to $1,00,000, however, it’s best if you connect with a healthcare app development company to get an accurate quote.

If you’re looking for a mobile app development company to build your urgent care app, then connect with Arkenea, a healthcare software development company with over 13 years of experience in the field. We build world-class applications that match industry standards and fulfill your requirements.