Nebraska is the top state for best medical environment for physicians, while Illinois is the worst, according to WalletHub's 2024 ranking published March 18.
The annual ranking is based on two key dimensions: opportunity and competition, and medical environment. To determine best medical environments, WalletHub looked at eight factors, including quality of public hospital system, percentage of "A" safety hospitals, presence of nationally accredited health departments, physician assistants per capita, punitiveness of state medical board, malpractice award payout amount per capita, annual malpractice liability insurance rate and physician burnout.
WalletHub also evaluated 19 metrics, including average annual wage, number of hospitals per capita, quality of the public health system and hospital safety grades, to determine the overall score for states with the most favorable conditions for physicians. Find the best states for physicians here.
Here are the 10 best and worst states for medical environment:
Best states
Nebraska
Utah
Montana
North Carolina
Maine
Minnesota
Alaska
South Dakota
Tennessee
Virginia
Worst states
Illinois
New York
West Virginia
Kentucky
Hawaii
Arizona
Ohio
Mississippi
Rhode Island
Delaware
New Mexico