Expanding the Front Door: Rethinking Ambulatory Strategy in a Consumer-Driven Era

Patient expectations are shifting, which is redefining ambulatory care strategy. Increasingly, patients access health care outside traditional clinical settings via urgent care centers, retail partnerships, or digital platforms.

This transformation reflects broader consumer behavioral trends, where convenience, speed, and digital integration are what define service expectations across industries, not just in the health care setting.

How health systems are adapting to these shifts was a key topic of discussion at the 2025 Top of Mind Summit: Digital Health, hosted by UPMC Enterprises and the Center for Connected Medicine at UPMC.

Ambulatory Expansion as Strategic Infrastructure and a Consumer Expectation Challenge

For large integrated systems such as UPMC, this shift presents both opportunity and complexity. Expanding access points can improve patient engagement and satisfaction, but also create questions about continuity of care, operational integration, and long-term system sustainability. UPMC’s partnership with GoHealth Urgent Care (GoHealth) illustrates how these challenges are being addressed through a deliberate strategy that prioritizes expansion, connected care and alignment with patient expectations.

Amy Meister, DO, President of UPMC Community and Ambulatory Services, highlighted that modern ambulatory strategy is about more than geographic reach. It is also driven by a desire to design access to care models that can better integrate into a broader care delivery system. Patients these days, irrespective of age or geography, have come to expect rapid, convenient entry points into the health care system, but they also expect those experiences to connect with their ongoing care.

This trend in health care consumer expectation has been accelerated by the way services and technology are delivered and made more easily accessible by other industries. They have, in essence, primed consumers – patients – to expect similar effortless experiences in health care. Modern health care consumers want on-demand, flexible, customizable, and efficient services that are integrated across the health care continuum. 

The recently launched joint venture between UPMC and GoHealth now includes more than 80 urgent care locations across Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These centers are designed to operate as true extensions of UPMC, not just as branded clinics, but rather as deeply integrated nodes within the larger, coordinated system. Clinical protocols, referral pathways, and data-sharing mechanisms ensure that visits to urgent care do not become isolated episodes – instead they are an integral part of a continuous care journey. 

“The competition isn’t just other health systems. It’s the last best digital experience the patient had,” Dr. Meister said. “Whether booking appointments, accessing test results, or receiving follow-up instructions, patients increasingly expect health care interactions to mirror the convenience and responsiveness of retail, hospitality, or financial services. 

Meeting these expectations requires more than expanding physical locations. It demands investment in digital infrastructure that supports scheduling, triage, and communication across platforms. Patients may begin their care journey in an urgent care center, but they expect that information to follow them to primary care, specialty services, or other care environments without delays or redundancies. 

Operational Alignment and Digital Integration

Todd Latz, CEO of GoHealth, highlighted that providing consistent patient experiences across multiple care settings — whether virtual or in-person — requires deep operational alignment. Patients may enter through many different doors, but they expect a unified system when they proceed through those doors.

UPMC Enterprises supports this vision by backing technologies and partnerships that promote interoperability and visibility across care settings. This includes platforms that streamline data exchange, ensure smooth handoffs between providers, and maintain real-time awareness of patient activity across urgent care, primary care, specialty services, and digital touchpoints.

Such infrastructure is not only essential for enhancing patient satisfaction and provider effectiveness, but also for advancing value-based care, where coordination and timely interventions directly influence outcomes and lower costs.

Designing Access for Flexibility and Control

One of the key insights from the discussion was that partnerships such as UPMC-GoHealth centers do not lead to health systems giving up control of patient care and experience. Through structured partnerships and investment in integrated platforms, health systems can offer patients greater convenience while maintaining oversight of clinical quality and operational efficiency.

Elektra Health, a UPMC Enterprises portfolio company, exemplifies this approach. Elektra provides virtual care navigation and education focused on menopause, addressing a long-overlooked and under-researched area in women’s health. Its platform empowers patients with personalized support, evidence-based resources, and connection to clinical care when needed, and it’s all delivered outside traditional care settings.

By integrating digital tools with system-based care pathways, Elektra demonstrates how consumer-oriented models can expand access while maintaining alignment with broader health system goals.

“Just because we are in a digital space does not mean we cannot provide the most exceptional patient experience. We emphasize that every interaction — whether it is a warm greeting or thoughtful follow-up — is a meaningful part of care. That starts at the front door and carries through the entire journey,” said Nora Lansen, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Elektra Health.

For UPMC Enterprises, this reflects a deliberate strategy designed around ensuring that growth in ambulatory and virtual services reinforces the continuity and quality of care while trying to limit fragmentation.

Balancing Innovation and Integration

As health care continues to work to adapt to the need for more consumer-driven models of care, the risk of care fragmentation increases. Without deliberate strategies, expanding access through retail clinics, urgent care, or virtual platforms can lead to disjointed care, duplicative services, and missed opportunities for intervention.

UPMC’s approach, combining physical expansion with digital infrastructure and operational alignment, is one example of how health systems can innovate in this space while preserving the continuity of patient care and communications.

A sound and coordinated ambulatory patient strategy is no longer a concern on the margins or back-burner topic. It is central to how health systems can better engage patients, manage risk, and ensure long-term operational stability. For UPMC and its partners, expanding the front door means a lot more than just meeting demand. It is about designing a system that turns access into continuity, and convenience into better care and outcomes.

Next Steps

• Read “Seeding Innovation in Uncertain Times,” a summary of the keynote address and fireside chat featuring Dr. Robert Califf, former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

• Learn more about Elektra Health and the company’s first-of-its-kind platform with telemedicine care, evidence-based education, 1:1 support, and a private community. 

• Learn more about the UPMC-GoHealth partnership for urgent care.  

• Read all our Top of Mind reports and event coverage.