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Concierge Medicine

The 3 Demographic Gaps in Urgent and Emergency Care That Often Go Overlooked

Author:

author

Sollis Health

Medical review by:

author

Dr. Scott Braunstein

Published: Oct 22, 2026

Updated: Oct 22, 2026

Urgent care has exploded over the past decade, positioning itself as the convenient middle ground between primary care and the ER. It's a model built for a relatively healthy adult with a straightforward complaint like a sprained ankle or a sore throat.

But for a subset of patients who most need immediate care—like infants and young children, older adults with complex medical histories, and people managing chronic conditions—this model routinely falls short.  

Here are three of the immediate care gaps that go overlooked most often.

In this article:

1. Children have unique healthcare needs—and they aren’t being met.
2. Healthcare is failing older patients with complex medical histories.
3. People with chronic illness are falling through the cracks.
4. A system built for the exception, not the rule

1. Children have unique healthcare needs—and they aren’t being met.

Pediatric emergencies aren't just smaller versions of adult ones. Kids have different vital sign ranges, different medication dosing, different disease presentations, and a much lower margin for error. Yet 80% of U.S. emergency departments (EDs)—and even more urgent care centers—aren't fully equipped for pediatric readiness. 

The problem? Many urgent care providers simply don’t feel confident treating certain pediatric cases. Rather than manage a child who doesn't actually need emergency-level care, they preemptively triage them to the ED—adding hours, cost, and stress to a visit that a properly equipped urgent setting could have handled. 

This problem shows up in a subtler way, too: when providers aren't sure what they're looking at, they often default to the most conservative course of action, which is often to prescribe antibiotics. This leads to problems like the overprescription of antibiotics: a 2014 study in Pediatrics found evidence that 11.4 million pediatric antibiotic prescriptions each year could be unnecessary, contributing to mass antibiotic resistance—a growing threat to public health. 

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New York and The Hamptons

6 clinics

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Southern California

4 clinics

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Northern California

2 clinics

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South Florida

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2. Healthcare is failing older patients with complex medical histories.

Managing an older patient in an acute care setting is inherently more complex and time-consuming than managing a younger one. There are more medications to account for and more comorbidities to weigh. There’s also more room for bias, leading symptoms to be misread as "just getting older" rather than a sign of something acute. 

Most EDs aren't built to absorb that complexity efficiently, and most urgent care centers have an even lower threshold: without the time or resources to properly evaluate an older patient, they have a lower threshold for referring to the ED. This compounds the problem, leading to more time in transit, more handoffs, and more chances for something to get lost. 

It also puts older patients at additional risk. Because immune function tends to decline with age, time spent in a crowded ED waiting room is an added exposure risk on top of whatever brought them in. And older adults managing more conditions and medications are especially vulnerable to misdiagnosis and coordination gaps once a referral is made.

Want to Learn More About Sollis?

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3. People with chronic illness are falling through the cracks.

The U.S. has a fast-growing population of people living with multiple chronic conditions—and they’re aging in a system that wasn't designed for them. Roughly three-quarters of older Americans, and more than a third of all adults receiving care, are now managing multiple chronic conditions at once. 

That population is overrepresented in ED visits, but showing up often doesn't mean getting well-matched care. EDs are built to stabilize acute crises, not to manage the layered complexity of frequent visitors with multiple interacting conditions. Two failure points show up again and again: 

Communication breaks down across disciplines. When the ED, the primary care provider (PCP), and any specialists involved aren't sharing a coordinated picture of the patient, care decisions get made with partial information. 

Pain management is inconsistent. Inadequate pain control remains a persistent problem in EDs, particularly for patients whose chronic conditions make their presentation harder to read at a glance. 

The pattern? A system optimized for acute, episodic illness is a poor fit for patients whose defining need is continuity within their care team. 

4. A system built for the exception, not the rule

None of these gaps exist because providers don't care. They exist because urgent and emergency care, as currently structured, was built around a default patient who doesn't represent most of the people actually walking through the door—especially the youngest, the oldest, and the most medically complex. 

Closing these gaps requires more than good intentions. It requires a model with the pediatric readiness to treat kids appropriately the first time, the time and coordination to manage older patients safely, and the continuity to keep chronic illness from becoming a string of disconnected acute episodes. 

That's the standard we hold ourselves to at Sollis, where we offer same-day access, a consistent care team, and coordination that follows the patient rather than starting over at every visit. 

Sources: First Focus on Children, NIH, the New York Times, Care Coordinations, NPR, JAMA Network, TechTarget, Forbes

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Concierge Medicine

The 3 Demographic Gaps in Urgent and Emergency Care That Often Go Overlooked

Author:

author

Sollis Health

Medical review by:

author

Dr. Scott Braunstein

Published:

Oct 22, 2026

Updated:

Oct 22, 2026

Urgent care has exploded over the past decade, positioning itself as the convenient middle ground between primary care and the ER. It's a model built for a relatively healthy adult with a straightforward complaint like a sprained ankle or a sore throat.

But for a subset of patients who most need immediate care—like infants and young children, older adults with complex medical histories, and people managing chronic conditions—this model routinely falls short.  

Here are three of the immediate care gaps that go overlooked most often.

In this article:

1. Children have unique healthcare needs—and they aren’t being met.

Pediatric emergencies aren't just smaller versions of adult ones. Kids have different vital sign ranges, different medication dosing, different disease presentations, and a much lower margin for error. Yet 80% of U.S. emergency departments (EDs)—and even more urgent care centers—aren't fully equipped for pediatric readiness. 

The problem? Many urgent care providers simply don’t feel confident treating certain pediatric cases. Rather than manage a child who doesn't actually need emergency-level care, they preemptively triage them to the ED—adding hours, cost, and stress to a visit that a properly equipped urgent setting could have handled. 

This problem shows up in a subtler way, too: when providers aren't sure what they're looking at, they often default to the most conservative course of action, which is often to prescribe antibiotics. This leads to problems like the overprescription of antibiotics: a 2014 study in Pediatrics found evidence that 11.4 million pediatric antibiotic prescriptions each year could be unnecessary, contributing to mass antibiotic resistance—a growing threat to public health. 

Make Sollis Your First Call

From urgent injuries to complex conditions, access board-certified ER physicians, advanced imaging and labs, and seamless specialist referrals 24/7, with no wait times. Discover membership benefits.

Our Locations:

center preview

New York and The Hamptons

6 clinics

center preview

Southern California

4 clinics

center preview

Northern California

2 clinics

center preview

South Florida

3 clinics

Join Now

2. Healthcare is failing older patients with complex medical histories.

Managing an older patient in an acute care setting is inherently more complex and time-consuming than managing a younger one. There are more medications to account for and more comorbidities to weigh. There’s also more room for bias, leading symptoms to be misread as "just getting older" rather than a sign of something acute. 

Most EDs aren't built to absorb that complexity efficiently, and most urgent care centers have an even lower threshold: without the time or resources to properly evaluate an older patient, they have a lower threshold for referring to the ED. This compounds the problem, leading to more time in transit, more handoffs, and more chances for something to get lost. 

It also puts older patients at additional risk. Because immune function tends to decline with age, time spent in a crowded ED waiting room is an added exposure risk on top of whatever brought them in. And older adults managing more conditions and medications are especially vulnerable to misdiagnosis and coordination gaps once a referral is made.

Want to Learn More About Sollis?

Find Your Plan

3. People with chronic illness are falling through the cracks.

The U.S. has a fast-growing population of people living with multiple chronic conditions—and they’re aging in a system that wasn't designed for them. Roughly three-quarters of older Americans, and more than a third of all adults receiving care, are now managing multiple chronic conditions at once. 

That population is overrepresented in ED visits, but showing up often doesn't mean getting well-matched care. EDs are built to stabilize acute crises, not to manage the layered complexity of frequent visitors with multiple interacting conditions. Two failure points show up again and again: 

Communication breaks down across disciplines. When the ED, the primary care provider (PCP), and any specialists involved aren't sharing a coordinated picture of the patient, care decisions get made with partial information. 

Pain management is inconsistent. Inadequate pain control remains a persistent problem in EDs, particularly for patients whose chronic conditions make their presentation harder to read at a glance. 

The pattern? A system optimized for acute, episodic illness is a poor fit for patients whose defining need is continuity within their care team. 

4. A system built for the exception, not the rule

None of these gaps exist because providers don't care. They exist because urgent and emergency care, as currently structured, was built around a default patient who doesn't represent most of the people actually walking through the door—especially the youngest, the oldest, and the most medically complex. 

Closing these gaps requires more than good intentions. It requires a model with the pediatric readiness to treat kids appropriately the first time, the time and coordination to manage older patients safely, and the continuity to keep chronic illness from becoming a string of disconnected acute episodes. 

That's the standard we hold ourselves to at Sollis, where we offer same-day access, a consistent care team, and coordination that follows the patient rather than starting over at every visit. 

Sources: First Focus on Children, NIH, the New York Times, Care Coordinations, NPR, JAMA Network, TechTarget, Forbes

Exceptional Care Starts Here

Connect with our team to explore membership options for individuals and families.

Talk to Our Team

Experience Exceptional Care

Experience 24/7 access to board-certified physicians, advanced diagnostics, and concierge-level urgent and emergency care.

Join Now
Share
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