Increasingly, retail spaces are adding offices offering medical services, according to a Bloomberg report.
Here are five things to know:
1. Recently, a number of healthcare organizations began opening medical offices in malls. For example, Prime Healthcare manages a 23,500-square-foot ambulatory care facility at the Plymouth Meeting Mall near Philadelphia. A second example is Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Health System is planning to open a 32,000-square-foot outpatient medical office at The Runway at Playa Vista.
2. There are a number of reasons for this trend, including the fact that mall operators are looking to supplement the disappearance of traditional retailers who face intense competition from online retailers.
3. The healthcare industry is looking to bring services closer to their patients, which further drives this trend.
4. Strip malls appear to be a popular choice for a medical office as compared to a traditional mall. This is primarily due to the fact that strip malls allow patients to park close to the medical office, making it more convenient, for elderly patients in particular.
5. Setting up offices in malls or retail spaces is also becoming a popular option for healthcare companies because they can get good deals on rent and allowances.