Health Care in Houston

Employment: Health care and social assistance employed an average of 376,089 people in the four quarters ending in Q3/20, almost one in eight Houston workers, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Ambulatory health care accounts for 43.9 percent of the sector employment, hospitals account for 33.1 percent and social assistance, nursing and residential care account for 23.0 percent. The average annual wage for the industry was $58,448 in the four quarters ending in Q3/20.

According to the Texas Medical Board, 19,493 physicians are licensed in the Houston region, with Harris County accounting for nearly 80.0 percent. The concentration of anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, surgeons, cardiovascular technologists and technicians, pediatricians, dentists, and occupational health and safety specialists/technicians is well above the national average.

Establishments: Houston’s 21,391 health care and social assistance establishments included 13,899 ambulatory health care providers, 6,512 social assistance establishments, 740 nursing and residential care facilities and 240 hospitals for the four quarters ending in Q3/20.

Top Employers: CHI St. Luke’s, HCA Houston Healthcare, Harris Health System, Houston Methodist, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Texas Children’s Hospital and UTMB Health.

Texas Medical Center

Houston’s Texas Medical Center is the world’s largest medical complex by several measures: number of hospitals, number of physicians, square footage and patient volume. The Texas Medical Center’s 63 member institutions are consistently recognized by U.S. News and World Report as some of the best hospitals and universities in the nation.

Scientists at TMC-affiliated institutions, most notably Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist, and MD Anderson are advancing life science breakthroughs across dozens of research centers and more than 300 research laboratories.

TMC by the numbers:

• $3 billion in construction projects underway
• 50 million developed square feet
• 10 million patient visits per year
• 750,000 ER visits per year
• 180,000 + annual surgeries
• 106,000 + total employees
• 13,600 + total heart surgeries
• 8th largest business district in the U.S. with 1,345 total acres 

In early ’21, the University of Houston College of Medicine, Houston’s first new medical school in nearly 50 years, became the TMC’s 63rd member institution. The school, founded with a mission to improve health in underserved communities, is currently building a three-story, 130,000 sq. ft. facility, and is expected to open in ’22. The new campus joins four existing TMC-affiliated medical schools:  University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and Texas A&M College of Medicine.

In ’21, construction began on TMC3, a multi-institutional 37-acre research campus designed to foster collaboration in clinical care, research and industry. The project is a joint venture between four founding institutions: MD Anderson, UT Health, Texas A&M HSC and TMC.  The four-story campus will include 187,000 square feet of wet labs, offices, shared meeting space and lecture halls. It is projected to open in ’22, creating over 26,540 permanent jobs and is projected to bring $5.4 billion annually to Texas’ economy. The “3” in TMC3 is meant to designate Houston as the “third coast” for life sciences.