Hawai‘i Physician Workforce Report 2025

REPORT TO THE 2026 LEGISLATURE

Annual Report on Findings from the Hawai‘i Physician Workforce Assessment Project

December, 2025

Of the 12,688 licensed physicians in Hawaiʻi only 3,647 are currently providing patient care to Hawaiʻi’s population. Further, of those practicing, not all physicians practice fulltime, thus these 3,647 individuals provide approximately 3,044 Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) of active patient care in Hawaiʻi. These numbers are 25 individual providers and 31 FTEs LESS than in 2024.

The demand model used to estimate how many physicians are needed is based on the average US utilization of physician services by specialty as applied to the demographic characteristics and health risk factors of each of Hawaiʻi’s four counties. Adaptations for geographic barriers and time-sensitive coverage needs were made for practitioners of Emergency Medicine, Critical Care, Orthopedic Surgery, Urologic Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Neurologic Surgery, Intensive Care and Psychiatry.

The demand model indicates the State of Hawaiʻi needs 3,688 FTEs of practicing physicians, indicating a statewide shortage of 644 FTEs of physician services.  However, when the geographic realities of specialty coverage on different islands are addressed, the unmet need for physicians equals 833 FTEs statewide.

The greatest statewide shortage of physicians by specialty remains in primary care, with 178 FTEs needed in total across all islands. The greatest subspecialty statewide shortages include Pediatric Gastroenterology, Pediatric and Adult Endocrinology, Pediatric and Adult Pulmonology, Cardiothoracic and Colorectal Surgery and Pediatric Critical Care. …

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