General surgeons deliver surgical and procedural care for a wide range of health needs, including trauma, emergency conditions, cancer, and gastrointestinal disease. Hospitals, particularly in rural areas, that cannot maintain consistent surgical coverage may face challenges in providing surgical services and timely access to care.
According to the American College of Surgeons’ (ACS) analysis of 2024 data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, 21 states, including Arkansas, face general surgeon shortages. The ACS also highlights geographic differences in the distribution of general surgeons, with rural areas having fewer surgeons relative to need than metropolitan areas.
This interactive dashboard examining the general surgeon clinical workforce in Arkansas is intended to inform policymakers, healthcare leaders, and other stakeholders about the supply, characteristics, and distribution of general surgeons so they can make evidence-based decisions regarding provider access across Arkansas communities. The dashboard has been updated to include years 2019 through 2023 using data from the Arkansas Healthcare Transparency Initiative’s All-Payer Claims Database and CarePrecise and licensure files from the Arkansas State Medical Board.
The dashboard provides visualizations at the state, county, and regional levels and includes information on physician demographics, activity status (e.g., full time, part time), and payer mix. Activity levels are based on claims and do not represent full-time-equivalent workload.
Key findings based on data for 2023, the most recent year available, include:
- There were 223 actively practicing general surgeons in Arkansas, or 0.7 per 10,000 residents; there were 151 who practiced full time.
- 20 counties had no active general surgeons.
- 31% of general surgeons were active fewer than 150 days during the year.
- 24% of full-time general surgeons were 60 or older, raising concerns about future supply as many approach retirement.
- Early-career general surgeons (under age 45) were more likely to practice full time compared to general surgeons age 45 or older (76% vs. 66%).
- The general surgeon workforce continued to show differences by sex: 78% were male and 22% were female, although the gap was narrower among early-career physicians (67% vs. 33%).
- Black and Hispanic physicians made up 4% and 3% of the general surgeon workforce, respectively, and were underrepresented relative to their state population shares (15% and 9%, respectively). Asian physicians made up 9% of the general surgeon workforce compared with 2% of the state population.
A note on physician counts and activity status across geographic levels: The dashboard calculates physician clinical activity separately at each level of geography, so counts will differ between views. In the state view, each physician is classified once based on total statewide activity. Because a physician may practice in more than one county or region, a physician may be counted in multiple counties or regions. As a result, the county or region view will show different total counts. Also, totals may vary between views because a small number of physicians could not be assigned to a specific practice area.
About the Data
The data presented in this dashboard were obtained from the Arkansas Healthcare Transparency Initiative’s All-Payer Claims Database (APCD), licensure files from the Arkansas State Medical Board, and additional physician information. Population estimates used to calculate physician rates were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program, using 2020-2025 population estimates and 2010-2020 intercensal population estimates.
To be included in the dashboard, a physician must:
- Hold a valid Arkansas medical license and a National Provider Identifier (NPI).
- Be assigned a specialty of general surgery.
- Have performed at least one qualifying surgical procedure during the year of analysis.
- Have had at least one active day during the year, with an “active day” defined as a day in which the physician did at least one of the following:
- Provided evaluation and management services to at least two patients in Arkansas. Telemedicine services are included in this analysis and were used when calculating physician activity.
- Performed at least one qualifying surgical procedure in Arkansas.
Qualifying surgical procedures include all current procedural terminology (CPT) codes 10004–69990, which the American Medical Association designates as surgical procedures.
Physician activity levels are based on the number of active days per year:
- Full time: 150 or more active days
- Part time: 50-149 active days
- Limited time: 11-49 active days
- Very limited time: 1-10 active days
Specialty classifications are assigned using a hierarchical approach:
- Taxonomy codes from the APCD.
- Taxonomy codes from the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System NPI Registry.
- Specialty information from 2025 licensure data when claims or NPI taxonomy codes are unavailable.
In cases where NPIs or license numbers were missing, CarePrecise was used to obtain the missing information. Manual review was performed as needed to resolve missing or inconsistent information.
Demographic details were primarily obtained from licensure files.
Payer mix visualizations reflect the distribution of each physician’s patients by primary payer type: Medicaid, Medicare, or commercial insurance. Each bar represents an individual physician and shows the number of patients seen or visits provided during the calendar year. These views are only available at the county level and can be displayed for children (ages 0-18), adults (age 19 and older), or all ages. Suppression rules are applied to prevent disclosure of small numbers. Values fewer than 11 are suppressed and displayed as 3.
Geographic views on the dashboard are available at several levels:
- Statewide (all physicians meeting inclusion criteria).
- County of service location.
- Marketplace regions used by the Arkansas Insurance Department.
- Rurality, based on the 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC), which distinguish counties by population size and proximity to metropolitan areas. Urban counties were defined by RUCC codes 1-3. Rural counties were defined by RUCC codes 4-9.
Counts of active physicians and activity classifications may differ between state and county views because activity is calculated separately at each level. For example, a physician may be full time at the state level but part time in a specific county, depending on where the physician’s active days occurred. Geospatial analysis was used to verify location when detailed address information was available. A small number of physicians could not be assigned to a specific county.
This project was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through an award to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Regional Campuses totaling $19,110,635, with 10% financed through nongovernmental sources. The contents are those of ACHI and do not reflect the policies of, or an endorsement by, HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. government.