As a leading not-for-profit academic health system, BayCare is a vibrant economic engine for Florida.
To understand BayCare’s quantitative and qualitative impact in the state, the Washington Economics Group (a Miami-based economics consulting firm) conducted an analysis of the organization's 2025 operating and capital expenditures, patient care, community benefit and contributions to taxes, employment and salaries. This study estimates the economic benefits of BayCare's operations and how they impact local and state economies.
BayCare is a powerful economic engine in Florida, generating an annual economic impact of $13 billion, a 30% increase since 2023. BayCare creates employment opportunities that generate more than $4.8 billion in household income statewide. Its operations contribute more than $7.2 billion to Florida's gross domestic product and generate $1.6 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue. BayCare's total economic impact has continued to grow, increasing from $8.5 billion in 2020 to $10 billion in 2023 and $13 billion today.
White dots represent BayCare hospitals
With more than 34,000 team members today, BayCare is one of the largest employers in West Central Florida. BayCare’s operations support 66,272 jobs in the state.
More than 51,000 supported jobs, or 77%, occur in the knowledge-based services sector and have, on average, a higher wage than the state average. This sector includes health care services, information, finance and insurance, real estate, professional, administrative services and arts, entertainment and recreation.
There are nearly 15,000 jobs supported in wholesale trade and transportation services, visitor industry, manufacturing, retail trade, government and construction sectors.
BayCare’s operational footprint, capital investments, academic mission and community engagement are helping improve Florida’s economy. Over six years (2025-2030), BayCare’s planned capital expenditures are estimated to have an additional $6.6 billion in economic impact on Florida.
This includes an expansion in Manatee County to provide its only not-for-profit hospital, opening in 2028; and in Tampa, the construction of a new facility for BayCare St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, to be called the Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s, when it opens in 2030.
In 2025, BayCare took the final steps in becoming an academic health system that brings cutting-edge treatments, research and expertise to West Central Florida. BayCare advanced its academic and research infrastructure by establishing a strategic collaboration with Northwestern Medicine, opening the BayCare Academic Health and Research Corridor in Tampa, and expanding its Graduate Medical Education programs.
As an academic health system, BayCare will generate substantial economic benefits, including growth of the physician workforce, the potential attraction of biomedical employers and commercialization of clinical research, and the elevation of the region’s national visibility as a center of health care excellence.
BayCare is dedicated to improving the community’s health through better patient outcomes and access to care. As a not-for-profit health care system, BayCare returned $500 million of its 2025 annual revenue to West Central Florida in service to its mission “to improve the health of all we serve.”
