Where is your territory short on providers — and by how much? County-level shortage data from the federal government, turned into a ranked target list.
The top table totals your territory's shortages across the three federally tracked disciplines — Primary Care, Dental Health, and Mental Health. It answers: how big is the gap, and how widespread?
The Top counties table is your call-plan order. It sorts by Total FTE short — the counties missing the most provider capacity sit on top. A county appearing across all three disciplines is systemically underserved, not just short one specialty.
Pick a top county and pivot to the other tools: Org Search for the health systems and clinics operating there, Group Search for the physician groups, Market Explorer for the hospitals and health centers with contacts and financials. The shortage tells you where demand is; those tools tell you who to call.
| Column | Plain English |
|---|---|
| Designations | The number of active federal shortage designations (HPSAs — Health Professional Shortage Areas) in the area. Each one is a specific place, population, or facility the government has certified as underserved. |
| Total FTE short | How many full-time providers the area is missing. FTE = full-time equivalent. "120.5 FTE short" means the federal shortage model says it would take ~120 additional full-time providers to close the gap there. It is a measure of unmet need — not job postings, and not vacancies at any one employer. A shortage area spanning several counties counts toward each county it touches, so county rows don't sum to the state total. |
| Avg / Max score | The federal HPSA score — how severe the shortage is. Higher = worse. Primary Care and Mental Health run 0–25; Dental Health runs 0–26. Scores matter beyond bragging rights: high-scoring areas get federal hiring help (loan-repayment placements, Medicare bonus payments), which changes how facilities there recruit and spend. |
| County — FIPS 48215 | The number after "FIPS" is the county's FIPS code — the federal ID every government dataset uses for that county. The first two digits are the state (48 = Texas), the rest the county (215 = Hidalgo). Useful when matching exports against your own territory files. |
| Disciplines | Which of the three shortage types are present in that county. |
| Health centers | Federally funded health-center organizations with service sites in the county — ready-made accounts already serving the shortage population. |
| Counties | (Summary table) How many counties in the territory carry at least one active designation for that discipline. |
Same shortage report, three different territories. Pick your industry.
What you're reading: Total FTE short is your demand signal in its purest form — a federal certification that the county is missing full-time providers. And high HPSA scores unlock federal loan-repayment placements and Medicare bonuses: comp levers you can put in an offer conversation that competitors quoting salary alone will miss.
The play — pitch with the county's own numbers: sort counties by FTE short, cross into Market Explorer, and look for facilities carrying both a high county HPSA score and an operating loss — financial and staffing pressure at once is what makes an organization engage a search firm. Open the conversation with the federal shortage figures for their own county.
Honest caveat: FTE short measures area-level unmet need — it is not a count of open jobs at any one employer. It tells you where the pressure is; you still qualify the search.
What you're reading: where clinical capacity is thin — and the Health centers column: federally funded organizations already serving the shortage population, sitting in the report as ready-made territory anchors.
The play — fewer calls, more coverage: in a shortage county, patient load concentrates on fewer clinicians — each prescriber you reach covers more of the county's care. Anchor the territory on its health centers, then pull their affiliated prescribers through Market Explorer and Provider Lookup.
Honest caveat: HPSA data measures provider scarcity, not disease prevalence — pair it with your own epidemiology before re-weighting a territory.
What you're reading: a county that's dozens of providers short is a county full of overstretched facilities — clinics running lean, hospitals recruiting hard, staff doing more with less. That's demand pressure for equipment, supplies, and anything that saves clinical time. And because high HPSA scores unlock federal money, the facilities in those counties are often actively expanding when everyone else is flat.
The play — Xavier's play: a medical-supply rep covering South Texas sorts by FTE short, sees Hidalgo County at the top (short across all three disciplines, max-severity scores), opens Market Explorer filtered to Hidalgo County, and walks out with the facilities, the decision-maker contacts, and a reason to call this week.
Honest caveat: shortage figures are area context, not any employer's purchase intent — they point you at the pressure; the account still gets qualified by you.