UCAOA was founded in 2004 by seven urgent care leaders to fill a need in the professional field for an association that existed not only to encourage and facilitate the development and success of urgent care centers, but to do so as a representative of its members.

The Association serves an international field, joining together the over 8,000 urgent care centers in the USA and additional centers across the world including Canada, Hungary, Ireland, Israel and New Zealand. UCAOA represents over 3,200 individual and center members.

UCAOA provides educational programs in clinical care and practice management, sponsors the first urgent care Fellowship, funds groundbreaking industry research, publishes the monthly Journal of Urgent Care Medicine and maintains an active Members Only Online Forum for daily exchange of best practices. (See UCAOA for more information)