HAP White Paper: Beyond Patient Care: Economic Impact of Pennsylvania Hospitals

HAP's analysis examines the hospital industry’s economic impact on individual regions of the state and on Pennsylvania as a whole. It assesses the effects of hospital spending and employment, documenting that hospitals are among the largest employers across the commonwealth. In addition, it recognizes the role hospitals play in attracting federal and quasi-public research dollars and the broader benefits hospitals provide by training tomorrow’s clinicians and providing charity and unreimbursed care. Download white paper.

Hospitals Provide Jobs

Pennsylvania's hospitals support jobs for 653,660 Pennsylvanians—that’s one out of every ten jobs in the state.

Hospitals in Pennsylvania directly employ 290,451 Pennsylvanians in a wide variety of jobs, providing $17.1 billion in wages, salaries, and benefits.

Pennsylvania hospitals support an additional 363,209 jobs through the direct purchase of goods and services—such as imaging equipment and technology—and the subsequent circulation of hospital dollars in local economies.

Hospitals Build Pennsylvania's Economy

Pennsylvania hospitals and health systems contribute $136.1 billion to the state economy through:

• $60.5 billion in direct impact—the dollars hospitals pay out for employee salaries, wages, and benefits and for the many goods and services needed to provide health care services and support hospital and health system operations
• $75.6 billion in ripple impact—the additional economic activity that results from the circulation of hospital dollars in local communities and across the state

Hospitals’ economic contributions have increased steadily during the past ten years through direct and ripple impact.

Hospitals Advance Health

Pennsylvania’s hospitals and health systems train the next generation of clinicians and develop the health care services of tomorrow.

Hospitals train tomorrow’s healers

Each year, Pennsylvania hospitals train thousands of doctors and other clinicians. Nine medical colleges and more than 1,300 health care-related training programs in the state train tomorrow's physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health professions. 

The clinicians trained in Pennsylvania will be needed more than ever as baby boomers age and live longer. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the nation will have an estimated shortage approaching 122,000 physicians by 2032.

Hospitals develop tomorrow’s cures

From lab bench to patient bedside, hospitals and health systems help develop new, more effective treatments and services.

During federal fiscal year 2018, Pennsylvania hospitals, health systems, and universities with hospital-affiliated medical schools brought $1.9 billion in research dollars from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to Pennsylvania. These funds: 

• Evaluate the pros and cons of various treatment options
• Support best practices in health care delivery
• Support epidemiological studies
• Feed the technology transfer that spawns spinoff enterprises, creating new jobs and economic activity

As potential new treatments mature, hospital-affiliated clinician researchers conduct the clinical trials that offer new hope to patients and establish new standards of care.