Hospitals Are Economic Drivers in Their Communities 2018

In 2016, America’s hospitals treated 143 million people in their emergency departments, provided 605 million outpatient visits, performed over 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.

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

  • Employ nearly 5.9 million people.
  • Are one of the top sources of private-sector jobs.
  • Purchase $903 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 16.5 million total jobs, or one of 9 jobs, in the U.S.
  • Support almost $3.0 trillion in economic activity.

Hospitals directly employ nearly 5.9 million people infographic