Print edition: 
Health care is the second-largest employer in the Wichita area, contributing nearly $2.5 billion to the payroll annually and generating $203.7 million in taxes, according to a new analysis.
Health care and related industries directly employ more than 43,400 people who create nearly 29,000 additional local jobs, the analysis found.
Not only are 70,000-plus jobs "pretty significant," but that number has been growing since 2000, said Jeremy Hill, director of Wichita State University's Center for Economic Development and Business Research.
The analysis was prepared by the center for the Medical Society of Sedgwick County.
The analysis is based on 2007 data, but health care continues to be a growing industry, even in an economic contraction, Hill said.
In looking at July 2009 compared with July 2010, "the new job openings are being created in health care," he said. Health care "has been the strongest sector of the economy during this whole period."
Between 2000 and 2007, the health care industry added 6,268 jobs, according to the analysis, making it No. 1 in total employment level growth, the analysis shows.
The analysis is an update of one done about two years ago, Hill said, and includes new data that shows health care's reach beyond the Wichita metropolitan area.
More than 717,500 people look to the Wichita area for health care, according to the analysis, with hospital patients from outside the area contributing $962 million to the local economy.
"That is new cash to the Wichita area," Hill said. "That's a pretty significant number."
Physician Linda Francisco, president-elect of the medical society, said the study was done "because we wanted to have an evaluation of where the health care industry was in this community — how much it impacted the economy of this community."
The need for health care continues to increase, she said, so the growth will continue as well.
Francisco said the analysis can be useful as a community "is trying to decide how it's going to allocate resources," showing not only where needs are but also where growth potential and jobs are.
Health care's impact on the economy is even greater than what the analysis shows, she and Hill said, because the data doesn't include the Sedgwick County Health Department, the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, the VA Medical Center, WSU's College of Health Professions or the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education. Their numbers fall under education and government employment.
Hill said health care and related industries rank ninth in average wages, at $36,318, which might seem surprising given the above-average salaries of physicians, nurses and other "high-knowledge, high-skilled" professionals.
But "the only reason it's low is because there's a lot of variety in there — there's a lot of people connected to each doctor," including office receptionists, nursing home employees, social-services employees and others who have low to moderate wages.
The analysis also looked at population per health care professional and at cost of health care, both in comparison with Omaha, Kansas City, Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
"Our costs are lower compared to other places," Hill said, adding that cost doesn't equate with quality and that lower costs should mean better access to health care and perhaps a better quality of life overall.
The survey put the average cost of a routine doctor's exam in Wichita at $75.80, compared with $81.20 in Kansas City, the next lowest, and with $94.42 in Omaha, the highest.
It said Wichita had one health care professional for every 14.95 residents, down from 16.74 in 2000. Again, Wichita fared best; Tulsa was worst with one health care professional per 17.12 people.
