Topping the list are, the Veterans Administration and HCA, which together employee almost 200,000 people

Recently, a ranking of the nation’s top 25 healthcare systems by number of employees was published. In the number one spot is the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Department. It employs 207,000 employees. Ranked number two is HCA, Inc., the for-profit hospital corporation. It has 77,000 employees.

Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will recognize that both the VA and HCA are national healthcare systems. By contrast, New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System ranks number five on the list with 55,048 employees and its locations are clustered in and around New York City.

Of course, the clinical pathology laboratory organizations of the nation’s 25 largest healthcare systems will be proportionately among the largest in the nation as well, when ranked by number of employees. The VA operates 163 hospitals nationally, along with 1,000 outpatient clinics and centers. HCA owns 156 hospitals and 107 free-standing surgery centers.

When Dark Daily ran the list of the Top Ten Largest Healthcare Systems by Revenue, the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department was ranked number one. (See Dark Daily, November 9, 2009—“Nation’s List of Top Ten Largest Healthcare Systems Include Some Surprises”) So it is not a surprise that the VA was at the top of the list again when the healthcare systems were ranked by number of employees, with 40% more full-time employees than its closest competitor, HCA.

Nation’s 25 Largest Healthcare Systems-Ranked by Employees
(Total number of full-time equivalent employees, as of 2008)

The ranking of the top 25 healthcare systems by the number of full-time employees presented above demonstrates how consolidation of hospital ownership that began in the second half of the 1990s has reshaped the hospital industry. Size matters.

Another useful insight is that the New York City metropolitan area, including Long Island, contains four of the 25 largest healthcare systems in the United States, when ranked by number of employees. It is a confirmation that this regional healthcare market continues to be one of the largest in the nation. –Karen Branz

Related Information

Largest Healthcare System Employers

Nation’s List of Top Ten Largest Healthcare Systems Include Some Surprises

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