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See the top hospitals in the U.S.

When it comes to health care, it’s important to live within close proximity to the necessary facilities—but also that they provide a high level of care.

There are approximately 7,500 hospitals, 70,000 pharmacies, and 4,800 urgent care centers across the whole of the U.S.; we’ve analyzed data to reveal which cities and states have the best access to healthcare facilities as well as exploring the U.S. states in which care facilities collectively provide the best care for specific treatments, such as a heart bypass or hip replacement.

By ranking states across America according to its number of healthcare facilities, we can see that the top three states with the best access to hospitals, pharmacies, and urgent care facilities are California, with 7,740 healthcare facilities, Texas with 7,002, and Florida with 5,920.

The graphic below further breaks down the states with the best access to specific healthcare facilities, by collating the number of hospitals, pharmacies, and urgent care facilities. Here, we have defined “urgent care” as the delivery of medical care outside of a hospital emergency department on a walk-in basis.

Map of the U.S. that shows what states have the best access to medical facilitiesAccess to health care can also be a cause for concern in large cities due to the increased population. New York ranks top as the U.S. city with the highest number of healthcare facilities with 2,134 altogether, which correlates with it also being the U.S. city with the largest population of 8.6 million people.

Houston comes in second with a total of 883 healthcare facilities and Philadelphia third with 562. A full breakdown of how many hospitals, pharmacies, and urgent care facilities per these top U.S. cities can be viewed below.

Individual graphics that display the best healthcare facilities in the U.S. by city

We also explored the number of healthcare facilities per 100,000 residents in each state to reveal where in the U.S. has the highest availability of prescriptions, hospitals, pharmacies, and urgent care centers.

The research reveals that West Virginia has the highest availability, with 38 healthcare facilities per 100,000 residents. Interestingly, West Virginia’s population ranks 38th in the U.S. with only 1.8 million residents and a total of 676 facilities.

Furthermore, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana top the list for the most healthcare facilities per 100,000 residents but also are within the list of the 10 states with the lowest population—all home to below 1.1 million residents. This data highlights a possible correlation between a greater availability to healthcare facilities per 100,000 residents and a lower population.

Table that shows which states have the highest number of healthcare facilities per 100,000 residents

For many, having a close proximity to affordable health care services is high on the list when it comes to choosing a location to live in. For those with known medical issues, it is important that they receive the best care and could factor into which state they decide to call home.

Some medical facilities have specialisms for certain treatments, such as The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins Hospital for Neurology.

To discover the U.S. locations best for specific medical treatments, we’ve analyzed each location based on the number of highly ranked facilities for specialized treatment options.

Chicago is the best state for heart failure with 12 highly ranked facilities, including the Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, while New York has the highest-ranking facilities for both colon cancer and lung cancer, the latter being the biggest killer cancer in the U.S.

Take a look below to find out the other states best for specific treatments.

Ranked graphic that shows the best U.S. locations for specific medical treatments

Methodology:

Using data from Homeland Infrastructure Foundation Level data, we’ve analyzed the number of hospitals, pharmacies, and urgent care facilities (urgent care is defined as the delivery of medical care outside of a hospital emergency department on a walk-in basis) in the U.S. We then combined these three metrics to look at the overall availability of healthcare facilities in U.S. states, towns, cities, and the number per 100,000 residents. We also compiled data from U.S. News looking at more than 6,000 hospitals to find out the hospitals that come out on top for specific specialisms.
You can view all data here.