Along with population growth in Phoenix has come an increased demand for health care services; meeting this need, the Phoenix medical community has become a major industry in the metropolitan area. More than 33,000 medical personnel are employed in the region. Forty-two licensed hospitals, providing in excess of 8,000 beds, serve the Phoenix metropolitan area; more than 2,000 physicians, dentists, psychiatrists, chiropractors, osteopaths, and ophthalmologists attend to health care needs.
The largest health care facilities in Phoenix are the Maricopa Integrated Health System with 621 beds; St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, housing 520 beds; the 600-bed Banner Desert Medical Center; the Barrow Neurological Institute, known internationally for the treatment of neurological disorders; and Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, with 619 beds. In 2000 a bone marrow transplant program for children was launched after Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation supplied a grant to underwrite the salary costs for a physician who specializes in pediatric bone marrow transplants.