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How many sleep clinics, cardiology clinics, and behavioral health clinics in the USA?
I used industry reports and trusted media sites for my figures, however many of these sources were a few years old or did not include a clear number for clinics, so I triangulated the available data to find the numbers: all calculations and assumptions are outlined below.
The overall numbers I arrived at are:
Sleep Clinics: 2,910
Cardiology Clinics: 9,450
Behavioral Health Clinics: 18,468
OVERVIEW AND METHODOLOGY
For each type of clinic, I used trusted industry sources and reports finding the most up-to-date figures. With the information for 2017 not being available, triangulation calculations were used to arrive at an estimate.
Whilst this doesn't provide a definite number, it does give an accurate impression of the size of each market, with sleep clinics being the smallest and behavioral health clinics being much larger. Where available, I have also included any additional information of interest about the market, such as geographical data or market potential.
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF SLEEP CLINICS
The source for this is a Market Research Report on Sleep Disorder Clinics in the US, published in October 2016 by IBISWorld, who specialize in industry research reports in the USA.
At the time of reporting, there were 2,825 sleep clinics in the USA, and the average annual growth (2011-2016) was 3%. Assuming this rate of growth continues into 2017, we can extrapolate:
2,825*1.3= 2,910
Additional Information:
The report also goes into some detail on the locations of sleep clinics in the USA. They mostly correlate with population distribution, with a higher number of sleep clinics in large, urbanized areas such as metropolitan cities. The presence of major hospitals is also a factor, although this often overlaps with the presence of a large city. Local government policy may also influence the extent to which outpatient sleep disorder services are offered in an area.
The report also comes to the conclusion that whilst the sleep disorder clinic market will soon be saturated in large cities, there is not much potential for growth in rural areas.
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF CARDIOLOGY CLINICS
For this, I used a Market Profile of US Cardiologists, published in 2013. Due to this source being older than the rest, and due to the report focusing more on cardiologists than their clinics, more extensive calculations were required to accurately triangulate the number: these are explained in detail here, however, I will explain the rationale behind the calculations below.
The report states that, as of publication, there were 31,481 cardiologists in the USA in 2013. Though it does not contain the number of clinics, it does provide a breakdown of clinics by office size and says how many cardiologists work in each office size category.
First, I took each office size category and calculated the average number of doctors for each one (Column b): please note that as one of the categories is simply '26+', an average number of 26 has been used, although the true number is impossible to tell without the full range. I then took the total number of doctors for each category across all clinics (Column C) and divided this by the average number of doctors in any one given clinic of that size, which gives us the average number of clinics in each size category. Those totals were then added together to reach a full total of 8,331.
This number is an estimate of the number of cardiology clinics in the USA in 2013. To reach an up-to-date figure, I calculated a growth rate based on the number of cardiologists in 2012 and 2013:
30,515 cardiologists in 2012
31,481 cardiologists in 2013
2012-2013 year-on-year growth = (31,481 - 30,515)/30,515*100 = 3.2%
This gives the percentage year-on-year growth for the professionals, which we can assume is linear with the rate of growth for the clinics themselves. The number of clinics in 2017 is then found by multiplying the number in 2013 by 3.2% to the power of 4, to account for four years of growth:
=8331*1.032^4
= 9450
This gives an estimated 9,450 cardiology clinics in the USA in 2017.
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINICS
A Behavioral Health Market Overview from 2014 states that "the US Mental Health and Substance Abuse services industry includes over 17,000 facilities". It also states that the market is expected to grow at a 2.8% compound annual growth rate from 2014 to 2018.
Assuming the Mental Health and Substance Abuse facilities correspond to all behavioral health clinics, I multiplied the number of facilities/clinics by a 2.8% increase to the power of three, for the three years between 2014 and 2017:
=17,000*1.028^3
=18,468
This gives an estimated 18,468 behavioral health clinics in 2017.
Additional information
This article explains why this is a market 'ripe for growth'. It states that there are relatively few experienced providers of behavioral healthcare services — particularly, the number of psychiatrists specializing in addition treatment is shrinking- which means there is more demand for the services than the industry can currently supply. The market is furthermore fragmented, with only a small portion of mental health care in the USA being delivered by large national providers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, whilst the exact figures were not available, I was able to estimate the number of sleep, cardiology, and behavioral health clinics in the USA in 2017 using reliable industry data and sound triangulation. The behavioral health market is both the largest and the one with the most seemingly untapped potential.