Assessing a health system's size through its physician workforce can provide a more holistic view of its capacity and scope.
This overview of the top U.S. health systems by total physicians is information that can be taken in combination with measurements of large health systems by the number of hospitals they operate and the number of beds they include.
As a reference point to the counts below, UnitedHealth Group's Optum announced in November that it had added nearly 20,000 physicians in 2023 for a total that now nears 90,000 employed or affiliated physicians.
The 25 health systems' physician, hospital and bed counts stem from the Compendium of U.S. Health Systems for 2022, released in December 2023, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Systems are ranked below by total physicians, with the additional data points of hospital and bed counts, to provide a more complete picture.
The physician count in the compendium comes from IQVIA OneKey data, which is collected through surveys. The total is aggregated at the health system level and includes all physicians (medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy) regardless of specialty who had attending, staff or treating affiliations with facilities in the system.
Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.)
Physicians: 25,352
Hospitals: 41
Beds: 9,217
CommonSpirit Health (Chicago)
Physicians: 15,019
Hospitals: 147
Beds: 17,107
HCA Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.)
Physicians: 14,232
Hospitals: 184
Beds: 37,478
University of California Health (Oakland)
Physicians: 13,920
Hospitals: 10
Beds: 3,427
Providence (Renton, Wash.)
Physicians: 13,203
Hospitals: 54
Beds: 9,511
Trinity Health (Livonia, Mich.)
Physicians: 12,026
Hospitals: 102
Beds: 14,706
Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.)
Physicians: 12,000 (count self-reported to Becker's)
Hospitals: 21
Beds: 5,287
The University of Texas System (Austin)
Physicians: 11,466
Hospitals: 7
Beds: 1,640
Ascension Health (St. Louis)
Physicians: 10,724
Hospitals: 119
Beds: 16,103
Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.)
Physicians: 10,307
Hospitals: 58
Beds: 10,528
Mass General Brigham (Boston)
Physicians: 9,127
Hospitals: 15
Beds: 2,715
Mayo Clinic Health System (Rochester, Minn.)
Physicians: 7,792
Hospitals: 26
Beds: 2,758
Sutter Health (Sacramento, Calif.)
Physicians: 12,000
Hospitals: 27
Beds: 3,543
UPMC (Pittsburgh)
Physicians: 6,896
Hospitals: 34
Beds: 6,047
New York Presbyterian Healthcare System (New York City)
Physicians: 6,580
Hospitals: 8
Beds: 3,970
Tenet Healthcare (Dallas)
Physicians: 6,514
Hospitals: 74
Beds: 12,690
Cleveland Clinic
Physicians: 5,737
Hospitals: 20
Beds: 5,106
Mount Sinai Health System (New York City)
Physicians: 5,393
Hospitals: 5
Beds: 2,452
Beth Israel Lahey Health (Cambridge, Mass.)
Physicians: 5,343
Hospitals: 10
Beds: 2,101
Prospect Medical Holdings (Los Angeles)
Physicians: 5,002
Hospitals: 13
Beds: 1,944
Johns Hopkins Health System (Baltimore)
Physicians: 4,711
Hospitals: 6
Beds: 2,316
BJC Healthcare (St. Louis)
Physicians: 4,470
Hospitals: 16
Beds: 3,166
University of Pennsylvania Health System (Philadelphia)
Physicians: 4,198
Hospitals: 9
Beds: 2,915
Corewell Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
Physicians: 4,198
Hospitals: 24
Beds: 4,689
UW Medicine (Seattle)
Physicians: 4,197
Hospitals: 4
Beds: 1,229