The Changing Location of Physician Offices in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois: 1870–1988

Abstract

Three locational patterns of physician offices during the last 120 years are identified in the Bloomington‐Normal metropolitan area. Offices first clustered within the CBD at dispersed sites, then concentrated at two sites within the CBD. Most recently, the CBD cluster has essentially dispersed while others have emerged. These stages were responses to changing medical technology and to evolution of the urban area that affected site and area attractiveness, patient access, and need to be near other physicians and medical facilities. The loss of the CBD cluster may not be a unique feature of small SMSAs such as Bloomington‐Normal.

Regional and Intrametropolitan Differences in the Location of Freestanding Ambulatory Surgery Centers∗

“…Cheaper land and labor, space available for expansion, and the improved environment of the suburbs have all contributed to this move (Daniels 1982). The health care field has not been immune to the suburbanization trend as physicians and dentists have been migrating out of traditional central city office locations to suburban sites (Lowell-Smith 1993;Mattingly 1991;Pyle 1989;Dorsey 1969). Thus FASCs are expected to be found more frequently in the suburbs than in central cities.…”