I was just browsing through the World Health Organization’s Statistical Information System (WHOSIS), Lots of interesting information on how many health care professionals there are in different countries around the world.
Just looking at a high level scan of the United States I would suggest that we would need about 2 doctors per 1,000; 10 nurses per K; 1 dentist per K; 1 pharmicist per K; and 15 others (Lab techs, PAs, therapists, etc) per K to provide basic health care in the US. The chart below is copied from WHOSIS, the US numbers are all from 2000.
I notice that there are almost as many administrators and support staff in the US system as there are professionals. That seems to be an awfully big overhead to be carrying.
Given a US population of 300,000,000 (300,000 K) today, we are talking about: 600,000 doctors; 3,000,000 nurses; 300,000 dentists; 300,000 pharmacists and 4,500,000 others. (8.7 Million Health Care Professionals.) (And that’s without all the administrators/support staff. ) That’s looking at ~ 3% of the population to provide basic health care. I wonder how much the numbers might increase to support an aging population as well?
United States of America
| Indicator | Value (year) |
| Physicians (number) ? | 730,801 (2000) |
| Physicians (density per 1 000 population) ? | 2.56 (2000) |
| Nurses (number) ? | 2,669,603 (2000) |
| Nurses (density per 1 000 population) ? | 9.37 (2000) |
| Dentists (number) ? | 463,663 (2000) |
| Dentists (density per 1 000 population) ? | 1.63 (2000) |
| Pharmacists (number) ? | 249,642 (2000) |
| Pharmacists (density per 1 000 population) ? | 0.88 (2000) |
| Other health workers (number) ? | 4,138,567 (2000) |
| Other health workers (density per 1 000 population) ? | 14.52 (2000) |
| Health management and support workers (number) ? | 7,056,080 (2000) |
| Health management and support workers (density per 1 000 population) ? | 24.76 (2000) |
The WHO countries report different categories of workers and the US doesn’t report all the same categories. I suspect they roll up different areas into “other”.
Laboratory health workers:includes laboratory scientists, laboratory assistants, laboratory technicians and radiographers.
Environment and public health workers: includes environmental and public health officers, sanitarians, hygienists, environmental and public health technicians, district health officers, malaria technicians, meat inspectors, public health supervisors and similar professions.
Community health workers: includes traditional medicine practitioners, faith healers, assistant/community health-education workers, community health officers, family health workers, lady health visitors, health extension package workers, community midwives, institution-based personal care workers and traditional birth attendants.
Other health workers: includes a large number of occupations such as dieticians and nutritionists, medical assistants, occupational therapists, operators of medical and dentistry equipment, optometrists and opticians, physiotherapists, podiatrists, prosthetic/orthetic engineers, psychologists, respiratory therapists, speech pathologists, medical trainees and interns.
Health management and support workers: includes general managers, statisticians, lawyers, accountants, medical secretaries, gardeners, computer technicians, ambulance staff, cleaning staff, building and engineering staff, skilled administrative staff and general support staff.