On Campus Medical Offices Moving Off Campus
Florida Medical Business | By: Kenneth A. Weston
With changes in health-care services, some physicians are focusing their practices on locations other than on-campus medical buildings. Instead, they are treating their practices as retail businesses, locating in growing suburban areas where there is a shortage of medical providers - and successfully capitalizing on residents and workers forced to leave the area for health-care services.
As a result, there is a tremendous demand for medical office space in many sub-markets. There is a tremendous increase in medical construction in strong suburban locations. Existing medical buildings are showing very high occupancy rates. Locations with high visibility and easy access to major transportation routes are in high demand.
The trend in more outpatient procedures also is having a pronounced impact on the medical office industry. Physician groups are using outpatient facilities for diagnosing and treating more patients outside the hospital setting, attempting to boost their profit margins and patient loads in outpatient surgery centers they own.
Other medical projects regaining appeal are “medical campuses,” which consist of a large concentration of medical facilities in one location. Such facilities include virtually all medical specialties, and are comprised of a cluster of freestanding diagnostic and treatment facilities with physician office space dispensed throughout. These types of facilities offer one-stop shopping for medical care. Location is the key for this type of project.