OHSU’s economic impact on Oregon has grown to $7.2 billion a year, according to an analysis commissioned by OHSU and completed recently by Pinnacle Economics based on 2019 data. The analysis also shows that OHSU operations bring substantial money into the state, creates jobs with high livable wages and supports multiple sectors of industry.
As a public institution and the only public academic health center in Oregon, OHSU’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of all Oregonians. OHSU provides a wide variety of unique services that benefit individuals, communities, businesses, local and state governments, and the entire state in myriad ways.
According to the report, OHSU’s total economic impact grew 196% over the last 12 years.
“As OHSU works to support the health and well-being of Oregonians, we also have a growing impact on Oregon’s economy,” said OHSU President Danny Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., FACS. “This economic activity is fueled by OHSU’s essential role as the state’s academic health center, providing specialty health services, training thousands of health care providers and conducting leading-edge research.”
The analysis found that without OHSU, annual economic output in Oregon would fall by $3.8 billion. Students would seek education at universities in other states, research grants would go to other academic health centers, and patients with the most complex conditions would have to travel to other cities such as Seattle and San Francisco, or forgo advanced care.
The analysis also found that OHSU not only had a significant economic impact on the state, but its spending benefitted industries statewide. OHSU spending on day-to-day operations,
including payroll and supply chain, supported people and services across 34 total counties in Oregon, half of which received over $1 million in payroll and supply chain spending.
This is the third economic impact report commissioned by OHSU. The first two reports were conducted for OHSU’s activities in 2007 and 2012. The purpose of this report is to allow OHSU to develop a deeper understanding of its place in the Oregon economy by quantifying its economic impacts in 2019 and how those impacts have changed over the 13-year period. Understanding its current impacts and historical trends will help OHSU leaders and state policymakers shape OHSU’s future in a way that will be most valuable to Oregonians.
By the numbers
According to a report by Pinnacle Economics, issued in 2020 and based on 2019 data:
- OHSU operations generate, directly and indirectly, $7.2 billion a year in total gross economic output in Oregon.
- OHSU's total economic impact grew 196% percent from 2007 to 2019.
- OHSU supports 42,639 jobs, both at OHSU and in the community.
- Without OHSU, annual economic output in Oregon would fall by $3.8 billion.