In 2009, there were over 970,000
doctors of medicine all over the United States. This figure included more than 120,000 inactive and some 57,000 unclassified physicians. Thus, the U.S. has a less marked
physician density compared to some other countries. Looking at individual states, Washington D.C., Massachusetts and Maryland have the highest number of physicians per civilian population. Among
specialists, psychiatrists are the most prevalent physicians. Approximately one quarter of all active U.S. physicians were educated abroad.
Expenditure for physician and clinical services stood at some 500 billion U.S. dollars in 2009. Thus, such services accounted for one fifth of total U.S. healthcare spending. The largest
proportion of costs for these services was paid by private health insurance firms, followed by Medicare payments.
Compensation for physicians is always a controversial issue, especially in times of economic crisis and growing
health costs. Surgical specialists are the
highest-earning physicians. With some 530,000 U.S. dollars, cardiac and thoracic surgery specialists have the highest annual median compensation, while orthopedic surgery specialists have the highest
median starting compensation. The highest-paid physicians live in the north central part of the U.S., where the median compensation stood at 234,000 U.S. dollars in 2012.
In the U.S., a generalist physician receives more than 3,500
annual visits, while a specialist receives around 2,700 visits. According to a survey, the most frequently mentioned amount of time spent with each patient is within the range of 13 to 16 minutes. 70 percent of all general physicians provide more than 31 hours of
direct patient care per week, and 40 percent have evening and weekend working hours. For specialists, these figures stand at 61 and 19 percent respectively. In general, the
level of satisfaction of U.S. Americans with their physicians is very high.
Photo: istockphoto.com / daft_lion_studio