When a doctor is considering starting or relocating a medical office, one of the biggest considerations is the Medical Practice Location.

Choosing the location for your practice first depends on the type of environment that appeals to you, and the types of patients that you would like to care for.

The location of your office must be chosen with great care, while keeping your future in mind. Under most circumstances, the time you will spend at that location is going to be considerable in some cases, it may be for your entire career.

Also it is important to realize you begin to build goodwill with the location—your patients know where you are and how to get to you. This is significant in a location-based business such as medicine.

Here are the three types of locations doctors consider for their Medical Practice Location:

Small Towns
(Below 10,000 residents)

In a small town, the cost of rent is usually lower than in other areas, and help may be available at lower salaries as well. Because residents have fewer options for medical care, doctors who locate in small towns tend to be generalists. Networking within a small community will probably be easy for someone who is from an established local family, or who grew up and went to school there. So if you prefer to practice where you grew up, this can be a good option.

The advantages of opening a medical practice in a small town include a more personally satisfying lifestyle, potentially lower start-up costs, and access to better networking opportunities for the acquisition of patients.

The disadvantages of small town practice are sometimes isolation from the larger community and distance from hospitals, laboratories and specialists. Small towns are less likely to have large office buildings, shared office suites, and other ways of establishing a practice, so you may need to convert a residential location.

Medium Sized Cities
(Up to 150,000 residents)

Beginning a medical practice in a medium-sized city can be quite satisfying because it has the advantages of both a small town feel and metropolitan area benefits. It will likely be closer to hospitals and specialists, and may also offer local family and acquaintance networking for patient development. You will often find a supply of trained office workers and other services, such as laboratories and treatment facilities.

One of the most favorable characteristics of a medium-sized city for a doctor is the availability of more and larger clubs and organizations that support the networking and referrals necessary to sustain a practice. For

The disadvantages of beginning a practice in a medium-sized city are similar to those of a small town. There may not be a hospital or a medical library nearby. As in a small town, there may be fewer choices of office buildings, particularly office suites that can be shared.

Large Metropolitan Areas
(Over 1 Million residents)

Generally speaking, large metropolitan areas provide the most practical environment for medical specialties and subspecialties because of the larger population base and the institutions providing medical facilities. Laboratories and institutes provide the technical base from which the practitioner can obtain results of tests and other procedures to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of illness.

Also, if you are wanting to increase your medical knowledge and experience, consider that many of the top medical practitioners of complicated and highly technical surgeries are located in large metropolitan areas. There may also be numerous other resources to support a physician’s specialty.

The disadvantage is that it may be difficult to determine the competition for the kind of practice that you want to begin. The number of doctors may be so large that you will have to join local medical specialty associations in order to get some idea of who the practitioners are in that area.

The bottom line is that no matter which you Medical Practice Location you choose, make sure you choose carefully. The location of your facility will have a significant impact on your practice.