Health care in Kansas supports far more jobs than just doctors and nurses, according to a report from the Kansas Hospital Association.

About 4,403 people worked for Stormont-Vail HealthCare as of the end of the fiscal year in September, spokeswoman Nancy Burkhardt said. Ben Bauman, spokesman for St. Francis, said about 1,600 people are employed at St. Francis Health.

KHAs last report on Shawnee County, in 2013, found every 100 health care jobs generate an average of an additional 55 jobs, though not all health care jobs had the same impact. By that calculation, employees at Stormont and St. Francis would support about 3,300 additional jobs.

Hospital jobs generate more additional employment than most other health care jobs, possibly reflecting the relatively high level of pay their workers receive compared with people in fields like home health care.

Stormont paid out $268,349,385 in salaries throughout its system in fiscal year 2014, Burkhardt said. A 2013 KHA report showed each $1 in health care salaries generates roughly an additional 40 cents in other economic activity in Shawnee County as workers spend their salaries on other services and goods. If that multiplier is still valid, workers at Stormont would generate about $106 million in additional economic activity.

Recent salary data for St. Francis wasnt available Monday.

Statewide, 221,501 people worked in health care. KHA found health care supported 357,408 other jobs, or about 61 additional jobs for every 100 health jobs. Employees in the health sector also drove about $5.5 billion in retail sales and $57.4 million in other economic activity.

Health care was the fourth-largest sector by employment in Kansas, behind services other than health, retail and government, and accounted for 11.6 percent of all jobs in the state. Health care tends to have a bigger impact in rural communities, where local government and schools may be the only entities that employ more people, according to KHA.

Health care spending in Kansas in 2013 was about $21.7 billion, including about $11.9 billion in salaries. That averages out to about $53,859 per worker, though an average conceals the broad discrepancy between pay for a home health aide and an elite surgeon, for example.

The largest employers within health care were hospitals, where 84,210 people worked. Nursing and residential care facilities were a distant second, with 45,228 employees, followed by doctors offices, 23,787; health and personal care stores, 10,977; and dentists offices, 9,271.

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Report: Health care supports other jobs in Kansas, Shawnee County