Hospitals Are Economic Anchors in Their Communities 2017

In 2015, America’s hospitals treated 142 million people in their emergency departments, provided 581 million outpatient visits, performed almost 27 million surgeries and delivered nearly 4 million babies. Every year, hospitals provide vital health care services like these to hundreds of millions of people in thousands of communities. However, the importance of hospitals to their communities extends far beyond health care.

The health care sector has traditionally been an economic mainstay, providing stability and job growth in communities. Health care added more than 35,000 jobs per month in 2016.¹

Hospital care is an important component of the health care sector. Hospitals:

• Employ more than 5.7 million people.
• Are one of the top sources of private-sector jobs.
• Purchase nearly $852 billion in goods and services from other businesses.

The goods and services hospitals purchase from other businesses create additional economic value for the community. With these “ripple effects” included, each hospital job supports about two additional jobs, and every dollar spent by a hospital supports roughly $2.30 of additional business activity. Overall, hospitals:

• Support 16 million total jobs, or one of 9 jobs, in the U.S.
• Support more than $2.8 trillion in economic activity.

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Current Employment Statistics Highlights, December 2016.>