Expanding Access and Reducing ED Utilization with Virtual Urgent Care: The First Year at UCM
How UChicago Medicine launched Epic-integrated, on-demand virtual urgent care — diverting ED visits, cutting wait times by 90%, and earning an excellent Net Promoter Score in under a year.
Download Full Case Study (PDF)Results at a glance
350
Completed visits in month 1 — before any marketing
600+
Monthly visits by August 2025
90%
Reduction in average wait times (192 min → 18 min)
13–18%
Of patients would have gone to the ED otherwise
Before December 2024, UChicago Medicine lacked on-demand virtual urgent care — only scheduled virtual visits were available. This limited access, missed revenue opportunities, and left gaps in low-acuity care. Patients defaulted to the ED after clinic hours closed or sent complex MyChart messages for urgent issues.
Launch virtual, on-demand urgent care (VUC) available 24/7 to all existing and new UChicago Medicine patients within calendar year 2025 — increasing access, reducing ED utilization for low-acuity diagnoses, removing barriers like clinic hours and commute times, and making care equitable and accessible to all patients.
After reviewing multiple vendors, UCM chose KeyCare for its Epic-native platform enabling seamless information and chart sharing. KeyCare providers were credentialed and rostered on UCM insurance plans so all patients could access VUC at the cost of a primary care visit. The service soft-launched December 2, 2024 via MyChart, with limited hours, before expanding to mornings, nights, and weekends in July 2025.
UCM is working to quantify the downstream impact of VUC on access, MyChart message reduction, and readmissions. They are refining their Tableau dashboard to include financial and patient experience data, and plan to expand to targeted chronic disease and transitions of care (TCM) visits in year 2.