The privatization of the Milwaukee Clinical Campus: A case (study) for geographic approaches to medical services

- There is a lack of geographical research on the production of medical spaces.
- Geography can contribute to the assessment of health care transformation.
- This study demonstrates health care privatization through routine technologies.

Social science researchers interested in human health have generally neglected the production of health care spaces and the experience of medical workers, particularly physicians. Health care researchers have contributed to our knowledge of the discursive and material construction of disease and ill health, the embodied experience of ill-health, and the socio-spatial relations of care networks. Yet, similar developments have been relatively absent in spatialities of medical services. This is particularly true if one looks beyond a few key sites in New Zealand, Canada, and England. This project reviews the geographies of medical services literature and then identifies three key areas which would benefit from greater engagement: macro- and micro-scale interactions, primary care spaces, and a greater range of places. I then use a case study of the privatization of a primary care space in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to illustrate the usefulness of geographic approaches for medical service research.