Medtail and Dollar Store Medicine Emerge as Heavyweights in Healthcare CRE

CHICAGO, IL.—As healthcare real estate continues to flourish, “medtail” and “dollar store” medicine have emerged as popular niches within the sector.

Medtail is the burgeoning trend of retail centers being leased to medical offices. General physicians to urgent care centers are rapidly relocating to community and neighborhood retail strip malls.

“Parents are now the healthcare deciders. Mom or dad is now shopping for medical services and they are looking for medical offices closer to home,” Ralph Cram, president and manager of Envoy Net Lease Partners LLC, a real estate finance company, tells GlobeSt.com. “Medtail focuses on millennials all the way to baby boomers who spend a lot of their income on medical care due to age-related health concerns.”

For example, Cram and his team funded a micro-hospital in a NFL-city on the edge of a suburban area. The majority of patients who initially entered the hospital for treatment stayed in their system for follow-up care which is an important aspect of medtail.

“It is important to capture patients who need long-term care while they are in the treatment cycle,” says Cram. “After all, healthcare services want you, the patient, to utilize their full range of services. Experiencing a medical emergency is just one aspect of care, it can be the door opener. Follow up services are profitable.”

Medtail spaces are typically located in high-traffic retail strip malls that can accommodate large medical groups. Physicians also gravitate towards extra square footage for any minor surgical or digital imagery needs plus they prefer flexible layouts for future expansions. Facilities also include large, open spaces and patient-friendly, amenity-filled waiting rooms.

Dollar Store Medicine

Small towns with approximately 5,000 – 10,000 residents are sometimes known as healthcare deserts because area hospitals are closed, one simply isn’t available or there is only one county hospital in the vicinity. As a result, “dollar store” medicine provides small town healthcare services such as basic family medicine and some urgent care.

“A lot of the younger doctors do not want to venture into rural America. These clinics are roughly 6,000 square feet typically and are usually located near the local supermarket,” says Cram. “They definitely fulfill a need as healthcare, in these areas, just isn’t available.”

For example, there is a town outside of Nashville without a pediatrician and so parents are driving their kids 35 miles away just to access pediatric care.

“Most physicians simply want to live in major markets,” Cram says.

According to Cram, medicine is still a location-based business with tele-medicine growing but is forecasted to blossom within 5-10 years. Patients, after all, still need nearby facilities where they can obtain direct medical care.