Doctors are among the highest-paid and most educated professionals in the U.S. and yet many find California is not the best state to work.

Health-care reform, the rise of branded hospital networks and the retirement of Baby Boomers are all complicating the lives of doctors.

In order to help doctors make the most informed decisions regarding where to practice, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states across 14 key metrics.

The data set ranges from average annual wage of physicians to hospitals per capita to quality of public hospital system.

California ranked 40th overall. It did worst (44th) in average annual wages and only 26th in the number of hospitals per capita.

The WalletHub study reflects the well-known doctor shortage that exists in the Inland Empire.

On the most-positive side, doctors are finding the Midwest states the best places to work. Iowa is number one.

Story Date: April 5, 2017