Real Estate and Lending Activities - Leasing Operations - Additional Information (Detail) $ in Millions		9 Months Ended
Mar. 15, 2018 USD ($) RenewalOption	Sep. 30, 2018 Lease
Ernest [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Number of direct financing leases		14
Prime Facilities [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Number of direct financing leases		10
Alecto Healthcare Services [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Number of direct financing leases		2
Vibra Healthcare, LLC [Member] \| Acute Care Hospital [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Term of lease, years	15 years
Number of lease extension options \| RenewalOption	3
Term of lease extension, years	5 years
Write off of unbilled direct finance lease rent \| $	$ 1.5

Number of direct financing leases.

No definition available.

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- Definition

Number of lease extension options.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	mpw_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Unbilled direct finance lease rent write off.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	mpw_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
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- Definition

Term of lessor's operating lease renewal, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2009/role/commonPracticeRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 842
-SubTopic 30
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (a)(3)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=77888428&loc=SL77919359-209981

+ Details

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- Definition

Term of lessor's operating lease, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days.

+ References

+ Details

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Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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Balance Type:
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- Details

Name:	srt_MajorCustomersAxis=mpw_PrimeFacilitiesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	srt_MajorCustomersAxis=mpw_AlectoHealthcareServicesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	srt_MajorCustomersAxis=mpw_VibraHealthcareLLCMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_MajorPropertyClassAxis=mpw_AcuteCareHospitalMember
Namespace Prefix:
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Balance Type:
Period Type: