Healthcare Insights
Top 25 largest academic medical centers
In the U.S., academic medical centers (AMCs) are hospitals that provide patient care and educate healthcare providers in partnership with at least one medical school accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). In many cases, healthcare providers continue their specialty education by participating in residencies at these facilities.
AMCs are different than teaching hospitals in that AMCs are affiliated with a medical school and confer medical degrees. Teaching hospitals may include medical students, residents, and other healthcare professionals who are finishing or continuing their medical education. Teaching hospitals are usually associated with a medical school, but do not issue medical degrees.
Using data curated from dozens of private, public, and proprietary sources, we’ve compiled a list of the academic medical centers with the greatest number of interns and residents.
Academic medical centers ranked by number of residents and interns
| Rank | Hospital name | City | State | Number of interns and residents | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center | New York | NY | 1595 | Explore |
| 2 | Tisch Hospital | New York | NY | 1318 | Explore |
| 3 | University Hospital | Ann Arbor | MI | 1011 | Explore |
| 4 | Yale New Haven Hospital | New Haven | CT | 900 | Explore |
| 5 | The Johns Hopkins Hospital | Baltimore | MD | 896 | Explore |
| 6 | Cleveland Clinic Main Campus | Cleveland | OH | 889 | Explore |
| 7 | Barnes-Jewish Hospital | Saint Louis | MO | 790 | Explore |
| 8 | Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | PA | 786 | Explore |
| 9 | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Nashville | TN | 784 | Explore |
| 10 | UNC Medical Center | Chapel Hill | NC | 779 | Explore |
| 11 | Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center | Los Angeles | CA | 761 | Explore |
| 12 | Jackson Memorial Hospital | Miami | FL | 743 | Explore |
| 13 | UPMC Presbyterian | Pittsburgh | PA | 736 | Explore |
| 14 | Stanford Hospital | Stanford | CA | 706 | Explore |
| 15 | Duke University Hospital | Durham | NC | 703 | Explore |
| 16 | Strong Memorial Hospital | Rochester | NY | 696 | Explore |
| 17 | Thomas Jefferson University Hospital | Philadelphia | PA | 690 | Explore |
| 18 | UF Health Shands Hospital (FKA Shands at the University of Florida) | Gainesville | FL | 683 | Explore |
| 19 | Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center | Winston Salem | NC | 675 | Explore |
| 20 | UChicago Medicine Mitchell Hospital (AKA Bernard A Mitchell Hospital) | Chicago | IL | 661 | Explore |
| 21 | Massachusetts General Hospital | Boston | MA | 656 | Explore |
| 22 | University Hospital (FKA the University of Mississippi Medical Center) | Jackson | MS | 656 | Explore |
| 23 | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center | Boston | MA | 634 | Explore |
| 24 | Henry Ford Hospital | Detroit | MI | 634 | Explore |
| 25 | Medical University of South Carolina Medical Center | Charleston | SC | 631 | Explore |
Fig. 1 - Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product. Accessed November 2022.
Which academic medical center has the highest number of residents and interns?
The Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City leads our list with 1,595 interns and residents. Another NYC academic medical center, Tisch Hospital (part of NYU Langone Health), comes in second with 1,318 interns and residents.
The University of Michigan’s University Hospital in Ann Arbor comes in third on our list, with 1,011 interns and residents.
The history of medical residency in America
According to the American Medical Association, the medical residency system as we understand it today was first introduced in the 19th century. Throughout its history, residency has been a way for healthcare providers to enhance their skills while working towards mastery in their dedicated specialty. Although the way in which care is delivered has changed, the basic programming of medical education has not, delivering a mix of classroom-based teaching and experiential learning through activities such as bedside rounds and clinical service.
The role of academic medical centers in the staffing shortage
The country is experiencing a severe medical staffing shortage that has been exacerbated in recent years by older healthcare providers retiring and burnout caused by excessive workloads during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare organizations, governmental agencies, and medical schools are working together on numerous initiatives to combat this loss of clinical talent across the country.
Things may be starting to change for the better already. According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, both applications and enrollment to medical schools in the U.S. rose to historic levels for the 2021-2022 academic year. This is an encouraging trend and one that must continue if the industry is to remedy the current staffing shortage and ensure proper care for those patients in need in the years ahead.
One way to help accelerate this trend is to make fundamental changes to how graduate medical education (GME) programs work. These programs are essential to the development of a physician’s knowledge and ability to provide care. GME training allows physicians to not only stay up to date on the latest medical developments but also contribute to them with their own cutting-edge medical research.
Right now, these programs are capped by Medicare, but expanding these caps could go a long way towards increasing the number of students that are interested in pursuing medicine as a viable career path in the future.
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