Family Practice in Georgetown, TX (Austin, Round Rock: house, neighborhoods, schools)

[beebz]

Hi, We live in Jasper, TX. My husband and I visited Georgetown recently and fell in love with the town. My husband is a family practice physician and we have three little kids (< 5 yrs old). We thought it was a great place to raise a family. In the short time I was there (just one weekend), we had wonderful interaction with the people and got great feedback re. schools and housing. It seems to be growing, yet does not have that suburban sprawl I saw in Austin. I just loved it, and came back home researching everything I could think of about Georgetown. My husband has been thinking of opening his own practice for a while now and we had decided to move. The question was where - and now we found the perfect town to move to. My questions to this forum are, (particularly to people native to Georgetown and physicians practicing in the area)...
1. What is the physician to patient ratio in the area?
2. Does there seem to be a need for FP physicians in Georgetown? or is it saturated?
3. How exponential is the population growth?
4. How do people rate their experiences with Georgetown Medical Center?
We hope that Georgetown will be the right choice for us. Any information or discussion would help us evaluate this decision. Please comment freely.
Thanks.

[iguanas4]

Originally Posted by beebz

3. How exponential is the population growth?

According to the city newsletter that comes with our utility bill, Georgetown currently has a population of more than 46,000. They say that's a 63% increase since 2000.

Here's a link to population projections from the city's website:

http://www.georgetown.org/department...rojections.php

You might want to poke around some more on the city's website. I always find lots of intersting tidbits about new projects and developments, etc. They seem to keep the site updated often.

Sorry I don't have any info about physicians and the hospital. It's possible if you contact someone at the city, they might be able to give you some stats? Good luck!

[lago veteran]

Your husband need not affliate with georgetown hospital only (not saying there is anything wrong with georgetown hospital but that there are others as well) Scott/White have just opened a new hospital and seton is opening one as well at 1431/I-35 by the end of the year. Scott/White main is a teaching hospital north of georgetown in Temple, and they are affliated with Texas A&M for medical students etc. They are really populating that area with clinics etc. of course hoping to funnel patients to their med. center. However, that county (Williamson) is supposedly the fastest growing county in the entire country. I'm sure that Georgetown Hospital has all the data necessary for you all to determine the need of family physicians. Georgetown itself is a great community with such an unusually vibrant downtown/college/arts. i never visit georgetown without wishing i had landed there.
Three kids under 5, yikes!

[beebz]

Thank you everyone, esp lago veteran for replying. We have been trying to
contact the hospitals, Seton, St. David's and Scott/White. But have not received any positive response regarding traditional FP set up for the area. We are still early in the game....lets see what happens.

[lago veteran]

I don't know if you know the logistics, but the leander, cedar park area is undergoing astounding growth as well. a new hospital (cedar park regional----an affliate of seton) is opening a full service hospital as well in Jan. 08. cedar park, leander and georgetown are a very easy drive from each other. so if you don't feel that the population/fp ratio is what you want in georgetown, the leander, cedar park area might and it wouldn't be too difficult to live in georgetown. (in some respects it might be nice for the family to live in a different community than where your husband is practicing.........maybe a little less co-mingling of work and play?)

[beebz]

how is the leander area? it doesnt seem far on the map. is its own town? or is it like ceder park? when we drove through ceder park, we saw A LOT of fp practices. how does leander look like?

[Trainwreck20]

Leander and G'town have been developing parallel for many years. G'town 'boomed' first, and now it is Leander's turn. Due to the toll roads and potential light rail, Leander may quickly surpass G'town, but who knows? Both of these towns are on the 'edge' of the Austin area...once you get past them, you are out into an area currently relatively unaffected by the Austin growth.

Anyway, I pretty much grew up in G'town, and there were just a handful of FPs 'back in the day'; however, with the growth that has occured, I am sure there is some demand, although I have no experience in the medical industry at all. Our family physician (who was not young in '77) was still in the practice in '95, so I suspect there are several generations going to the same Dr.

[texastea]

Personally, I'd choose Georgetown, but if it turns out that drs aren't as needed there, Leander would be a great location. Leander has two doctors...Leander Healthcare with Dr. Mauldin and a PA. Very busy! There's a newer one, Dr. Elizabeth Burnell at Hill Country Family Health Specialists on Crystal Falls Parkway which is becoming a medical parkway of sorts with lots of medical related businesses opening up.

Leander is a town in its own right and is growing VERY fast (121.5% from 2000-06)...the town part isn't much to look at right now, but the planning and zoning has won national awards and the new growth will be attractive and functional.

If you bought a house in Escalera Ranch or Cimaron Hills (High end neighborhoods, Georgetown addresses), you could live between Leander and Georgetown.

[beebz]

how is it that the city of leander only has two fp doctors? how is that possible for a city with popluation of 20000+-? where do most of the ppl go for healthcare?

[texastea]

For healthcare, we drive all over the area: our pediatrician is in Northwest Austin, OB in Northwest Austin, heart doctor in Round Rock, neurologist downtown Austin, pediatrist in Cedar Park, labs & tests in Austin or Round Rock. We do go to the FP in Leander, but the other 20,000 may be willing to drive to Cedar Park, Round Rock or NW Austin or maybe they don't have a choice yet