• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2007

This study attempts to investigate the spatial characteristics of medical hospital distributions in Korea. For the purpose we examine the inter- and intra regional variations in the distributions of clinics by specialty subject. In particular, we analyze the distribution patterns of Location Quotients of clinics for 12 specialty subjects in Seoul. Medical services tend to be concentrated on the large cities, especially in the Metropolitan Seoul Area. In particular, clinics and medical doctors as well as large scale general hospitals have been strongly concentrated on the Metropolitan Seoul area. These circumstace may be related with the fact that medical hospitals are established and operated by private sector in Korea, and thus they attempt to find their location where they can get maximum profit. The distribution patterns of clinics of 12 specialty subjects can be classified to several characteristic patterns. In particular, clinics of plastic surgeon tend to be strongly concentrated on the Gangnam area in Seoul. Finally, clinics of plastic surgeon tend to be located on the areas near the subway stations along the subway Line 2 and Line 3 in the beginning. The existence of plastic surgeons turns out to have significant role on determining the location for the newly opening plastic surgeons in the later. Therefore, their agglomeration has been getting more strongly.