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Background: Along with the development of the Chinese economy, there has been an increasing demand for resident health care services. Human resources for health (HRH) are a cornerstone in the medical system and have a significant influence on the health status of residents. Methods: This study employed the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to explore the output efficiency of residents’ health status. The input variable was medical services and the output variable was the health status of residents. We examined aspects of the provincial and national dimensions in China and used a Tobit regression analysis to explore the impact of HRH on output efficiency scores. Results: We found that in the provincial dimension, all kinds of HRH (except for technicians) had a significantly positive impact on the output efficiency of residents’ health status. In the national dimension, licensed (assistant) doctors, registered nurses, and village doctors had a significantly positive effect on the efficiency in the “with surgical procedures” model. In the “without surgical procedures” model, the effect factors changed to registered nurses and pharmacists. Most importantly, pharmacists played a critical role in both the provincial and national output efficiency scores. For pharmacists, the influence coefficient was three times higher than licensed (assistant) doctors and 11 times higher than registered nurses.Conclusions: There is asymmetry between the demand for drug therapy and the lack of clinical pharmacists. Optimizing the allocation of HRH should be a top priority for healthcare systems and the government should adopt a long-term perspective.