City population needed for a practice

[q1we3]

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I was looking into cities in Canada with no optometrist. How big the city must be in terms of population to sustain a nice patient flow? In some provinces there are cities with 25,000 people with no optometrist. Is that enough?

 

[KHE]

I was looking into cities in Canada with no optometrist. How big the city must be in terms of population to sustain a nice patient flow? In some provinces there are cities with 25,000 people with no optometrist. Is that enough?

It depends.

If that town is a bedroom community for another city, you may find that it's not enough because the townsfolk may do their business in the city where they work.

Every situation is different and every individual market needs to be analyzed but in theory yes, 25,000 is more than enough population to support an OD.

If there is not one where, then you have to look to try to find out why not. See if there's an abundance of ODs in a neighboring town. For example, a city might not have an OD but a county might have more than enough if they are within reasonable driving distance.

 

[HPDV6000]

I've read from another forum about an OD saying an optometrists needs at least a population of 10,000 to keep his practice running.

 

[ucbsowarrior]

I was looking into cities in Canada with no optometrist. How big the city must be in terms of population to sustain a nice patient flow? In some provinces there are cities with 25,000 people with no optometrist. Is that enough?

This question is too simplistic as there are too many variables that go into assessing an given location.

If you don't have the skills to assess an area, I would hire a consultant to help you.

e.g. if you move into that town for your business and someone else opens, now there are three ods. what happens then???

If you are not a good business person or a good people person you will be in trouble in almost all business evironments.

 

[20DOC20]

The ratio for rural is 1 OD per 6000 (Not including the MD's).
The ratio for urban is 1 OD per 11000 ("")

Hint: Contact Yellowbook or a phone company that had dual phonebook and internet advertising. They can tell you how many people in a given geographic region google the term "optometrist" or "optical" or whatever you like.

Knowing that information would've been a big PLUS in the business plan that I had to submit to Bank of America. I went off of the standard 1:6000 ratio and that was fine.

I found out how many people are searching for "optometrist" per month in my area and WOW, this area can fit one more OD besides me!

 

[20DOC20]

Also, you need to consider your draw area. In urban settings it will be a smaller radius, probably a few miles. Rural can be up to 50 miles.