America's 30 Best Hospitals
America's 20 Best Community Hospitals
America's 30 Best Hospitals
Becker's Hospital Review has named the 30 best hospitals in America, ranging from well-known academic medical centers with huge research budgets to institutions that have reached greatness without much fanfare. Each of these winners has put patients' needs first, driven a variety of innovations and set the bar for high-quality care higher. Their success has been verified by U.S. News & World Report, Thomson Reuters, HealthGrades and other ratings agencies. And each of them has a great story to tell. Here are the hospitals, in alphabetical order.Akron General Medical Center (Akron, Ohio)
In 2008, a columnist for the New Haven (Conn.) Register was amazed that a hospital from a midsize Ohio city could do so well on HealthGrades' list of best hospitals. "Never having had the pleasure of being a patient at Akron General Medical Center, it's hard to argue with its first-place finish in 'America's 50 Best Hospitals,' " he wrote. "Even so, is Akron General better than Massachusetts General? Memorial Sloan Kettering?" Neither of these prestigious institutions made the list. While Akron General did not actually finish first (the columnist misinterpreted alphabetical order as rankings), it performed remarkably well on HealthGrades' measurements, based on mortality and in-hospital complications.
This hospital is a regional referral center for cardiology, cancer, women's health and orthopedics. It is a teaching and research institution with 511 beds, 3,400 employees and a medical staff of more than 1,000 physicians. The hospital shares a bio-innovation partnership with other local hospitals that will receive $1 million in federal funding for orthopedic research.
Akron General employees recently demonstrated a notable level of cohesion. When an ED nurse at the hospital became sick with a rare form of bone cancer of the hip, his coworkers began a fundraising effort for his medical bills, sending meals to his family and taking in his children during Christmas 2009.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St. Louis)
This 1,111-bed behemoth, the largest private employer in the St. Louis area, is the product of a 1996 merger of Barnes Hospital and the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis. The old Barnes Hospital was one of the first to treat diabetic patients with insulin, receiving a $10,000 grant from John D. Rockefeller to do so, and the first to install an electronic data processing system, inspired by a primitive system (by today's standards) not used for healthcare but to design atomic bombs at Los Alamos, N.M. Jewish Hospital, which had its own list of distinctions, always pledged to provide care to "persons of any creed or nationality."
Later, as Barnes-Jewish, the hospital has hosted many technological advances to improve healthcare. Researchers have developed robotic heart surgery, off-pump surgery and the Cox-MAZE procedure for atrial fibrillation. The hospital's lung transplant program is one of the world's largest, performing more than 860 transplants, including the world's first double-lung transplant. Barnes-Jewish's Siteman Cancer Center cares for nearly 6,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients and more than 32,000 follow-up patients each year.
Barnes-Jewish took ninth place in U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009, was the first adult hospital in Missouri to be recognized as a Magnet hospital and won a Consumer Choice designation from the National Research Corp. The hospital, the flagship of BJC HealthCare and teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine, hosts more than 18,000 inpatient surgeries and more than 19,000 outpatient surgeries annually.
Beaumont Hospital (Royal Oak, Mich.)
This 1,061-bed academic and referral center takes its name from William Beaumont, MD, known for his early research on human digestion. In 1822, while an Army surgeon at Fort Mackinac, Mich., he treated a fur trader shot in the stomach. The wound healed but never closed, allowing Dr. Beaumont to tie a piece of food to a string, insert it through the wound and remove it periodically to study the digestion process.
That kind of innovative research tradition lives on at Beaumont Hospital, where investigators have pioneered radiation technology to lower the time and cost of treating breast cancer, faster and less costly CT heart scanning and high-tech implanted devices to treat incontinence. Beaumont's medical staff of more than 3,700 physicians represents 91 medical and surgical specialties.
Beaumont Hospital is on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009, HealthGrades Top 50 Hospitals, Thomson Reuters' 50 Top Hospitals for 2008 and the Leapfrog Group's 2007 list of top hospitals for quality and safety. In 2008, the National Research Corp. named it the Most Preferred Hospital in Southeast Michigan for the 14th year in row and Nursing Professional magazine named it one of the top 100 hospitals for nurses.
Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston)
Brigham and Women's is the result of the 1980 merger of three hospitals. One of them, the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, was named after a restaurateur who willed his $5.3 million fortune for a new hospital in 1877. Another was the Boston Hospital for Women, whose legacy lives on with Brigham and Women's continued regional primacy in women's health services and in numbers of births.
"The Brigham," as it is often called, is a 777-bed teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School with more than 12,000 employees, 3,000 physicians on staff, more than 1,000 researchers and 2,800 nurses. In 1993, Brigham and Women's joined with Massachusetts General Hospital to found Partners HealthCare, now a 10-hospital network that dominates the state and is a daunting negotiator for health insurance contracts.
The hospital performed the world's first quadruple transplant in 2000, harvesting four organs from a single donor: a kidney, both lungs and a heart. And in April 2009, the hospital hosted the second U.S. face transplant. The hospital ranked No. 10 on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009 and has been on the U.S. News honor roll of the top 21 hospitals for 11 consecutive years. It was also cited by Thomson Reuters and the Leapfrog Group and was recognized by the University HealthSystem Consortium as one of five top-performing academic medical centers in the country in a quality and safety benchmarking study.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles)
Cedars-Sinai derives its name from the 1961 merger of Cedars of Lebanon Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital, which used to be called "the Mount Sinai Home for the Incurables." Cedars-Sinai, however, has long since given up thinking of its patients as "incurable." For example, as a resident at Cedars-Sinai in 1981, David Ho, MD, identified some of the first cases of a deadly new disease that would soon be called AIDS. He went on to help develop treatments that have saved countless AIDS victims.
The 850-bed hospital has 10,000 employees and more than 2,000 physicians in almost every clinical specialty. More than 350 residents and fellows participate in more than 60 programs. Residents trying for the first time to insert the Swan-Ganz catheter can take heart that it was invented at Cedars-Sinai by cardiologists Jeremy Swan, MD, and William Ganz, MD.
Cedars-Sinai ranked in 11 specialties in U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009. For more than 20 years, Los Angelinos have named Cedars-Sinai their "most preferred hospital," according to the Consumer Choice survey. HealthGrades named Cedars-Sinai on its lists of 50 best hospitals and distinguished hospitals, which recognizes hospitals in the top 5 percent of the nation for clinical excellence, in 2009.
Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland)
Founded in 1921 by surgeons who had worked together in the U.S. Army in France during World War I, Cleveland Clinic was devastated by fire in 1929. The conflagration, started by a light bulb igniting nitro-cellulose x-ray film, killed 123 people, including one of the founders. Rebuilding as the country entered the Great Depression, the clinic acquired a national reputation for treating cardiovascular diseases and accomplished an impressive list of firsts: first coronary angiography in 1958, first coronary artery bypass surgery in 1967 and the first minimally invasive aortic valve surgery in 1996, to name a few.
The Cleveland Clinic has branched out to many other specialties where it also excels. Its doctors discovered of first gene linked to juvenile macular degeneration, developed the first percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, first identified carpal tunnel syndrome and carried out the first U.S. face transplant in 2008. The clinic ranked No. 4 on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009. Among specialties on U.S. News' list, it ranks No. 1 for heart & heart surgery; No. 2 for rheumatology, urology and digestive disorders; No. 4 for orthopedic and respiratory disorders; and No. 5 for kidney disorders.
With 1,700 salaried staff physicians in 120 specialties and subspecialties, the organization operates through 10 northeast Ohio hospitals plus affiliates. The clinic handled more than 2.8 million patient visits in 2005, including almost 70,000 hospital admissions, making it one of the largest private medical establishments in the world. It has also held Magnet status from the American Nurses Credentialing Center since 2003.
Duke University Hospital (Durham, N.C.)
This 924-bed hospital ranks among the noblest of hospitals, as close as any duke can get to becoming king. This hospital is one of a rare breed of institutions to place in the honor rolls of both major hospital ratings systems. Last year it ranked No. 11 on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009 and won the Everest Award, given to Thomson Reuters' top 25 hospitals. Only one other hospital, Vanderbilt, achieved this distinction, showing just how different rating systems can be. Both U.S. News and Thomson Reuters examine measures such as mortality and patient safety, but while Thomson Reuters also looks at business concerns such as length of stay, expenses and profitability, U.S. News bases one-third of its score on physicians' opinions.
Duke placed among the top 10 in U.S. News' lists of Best Hospitals in specialties for gynecology, geriatrics, orthopedics, respiratory disorders, urology, ophthalmology, heart & heart surgery and cancer. The hospital also has won recognition by the Leapfrog Group and AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality, reflecting the success of Duke's Safe Choices program, which empowers staff to improve safety by understanding the importance of behavioral choices in everyday patient care.
This academic medical center, located in Durham, N.C., has more than 10,000 full-time employees, of which about 15 percent have a medical or doctoral degree, or both. Among recent technological breakthroughs, Duke became the first hospital to establish a center dedicated exclusively to cardiovascular MRIs, in 2001.
Evanston Hospital (Evanston, Ill.)
It was at Evanston Hospital in the 1920s that Pediatrician Louis W. Sauer, MD, developed the vaccine for Whooping Cough, saving numerous lives around the world. Founded as a six-bed facility in 1891, this institution has grown to 466 beds with a Level I trauma center, a women's hospital and a cardiovascular care center. Its Kellogg Cancer Center, previously in a temporary site, is expected to open in a permanent location this year.
Evanston Hospital is the flagship of four-hospital NorthShore University HealthSystem, a growing system in the prosperous North Shore suburbs of Chicago. NorthShore has annual revenue of over $1.5 billion and a staff of nearly 9,000. Formerly known as Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, the system changed its name when it switched affiliated medical schools from Northwestern University to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
In 2003, NorthShore was one of the first hospital systems in the country to successfully launch a system-wide EMR with demonstrable benefits in quality, safety, efficiency and service to patients. Since then, the EMR has been a tremendous driver of growth, allowing the system to implement consistent procedures and end inefficient and unsafe practices, such as handwritten records. In another innovation, patients can search online for the next available time for an MRI at 10 available locations, which spreads out demand and helps the system take care of more patients.
The hospital has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters Major Teaching Hospital and as a Most Wired hospital. The NorthShore University HealthSystem Research Institute is a focal point for more than 1,000 active research projects and more than 150 externally funded research faculty.
Henrico Doctors' Hospital (Richmond, Va.)
Henrico Doctors' Hospital hosted its first heart surgery in 1979, when such procedures were confined to large academic medical centers. In 1990, it was the first hospital in Virginia to perform a left ventricular assist device procedure; in 2004, it was the first in Virginia to implant the MicroMed DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device; and in 2001, it was the first U.S. hospital to perform thoracic surgery using the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System.
This 340-bed hospital, part of HCA Virginia Health System, was called Henrico Doctors' Hospital-Forest until Feb. 2009 when the name was simplified. In July 2009, the hospital launched a $100 million expansion that includes a new ED, heart center, ASC, a cancer specialty clinic and intra-operative MRI.
Henrico Doctors' has been one of HealthGrades' 50 Best Hospitals in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Among Virginia hospitals, HealthGrades ranked it as one the top five for cardiac surgery (in 2010), the top 10 in for joint replacement (2006-2010) and top 10 for overall critical care (2006-2010). In addition, it received HealthGrades' stroke care excellence award (in 2005-2010), pulmonary care excellence award (2008-2010) and distinguished hospital award (2003-2009).
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
It goes by the name "HUP," sounding almost like a military drill, but this 640-bed institution's true persona is definitely academic. HUP is the oldest university-owned teaching hospital in the nation, founded in 1874 by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Located on the campus of the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, HUP is part of Penn Medicine, which includes the medical school, two other large hospitals and separate primary care and specialty groups, as well as affiliations with 11 community hospitals.
Not content with its significant clinical research achievements, this major teaching center has been at the cutting edge of important process initiatives. The same hospital that developed TransOral Robotic Surgery for tumors of the mouth, throat and voice box also reduced incidence of central line-associated bloodstream infections by more than 90 percent in a three-year initiative. Penn Medicine has nearly 2,100 physicians on staff (including more than 1,800 full-time faculty), more than 1,000 residents and fellows, 18,000 employees, more than 80,500 adult admissions, more than 2 million outpatient visits and more than 116,000 ED visits.
In 2009, HUP placed No. 8 on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009, won the Consumer Choice Award and was listed by Nursing Professionals' list of Top 100 Hospitals to Work For. HUP has achieved Magnet status from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. U.S. News also lists the school of medicine among the top three research-oriented medical schools in the nation. The National Cancer Institute has designated HUP's Abramson Cancer Center as a Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore)
Think of Johns Hopkins as the brightest kid in your class. Maybe you thought you'd aced the physics midterm but Johns Hopkins did much better — as usual. In 2009, the Baltimore teaching hospital topped U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009, and it has done so every single year since 1991. Among specialties in 2009, U.S. News rated Hopkins No. 1 in otolaryngology, rheumatology, urology and geriatrics; No. 2 in gynecology, neurology and neurosurgery, ophthalmology and psychiatry; No. 3 in cancer, digestive disorders, diabetes, heart and respiratory; and No. 5 in orthopedics.
However, just as math geniuses may not be so outstanding outside of math class, Johns Hopkins doesn't shine quite so much in other hospital rankings. Still, the U.S. News rankings are probably the most sought-after, and the 982-bed academic medical center has a rich reputation in academic medicine. It practically invented the concept of the teaching hospital, having coined such terms as residents, rounds and house staff. Hopkins researchers won the Nobel Prize for discovering restriction enzymes that created the genetic engineering industry and they developed the first "blue baby" operation, which opened the way to modern heart surgery.
But rather than rest on these grand laurels, Hopkins has also attended to the day-to-day needs of running a hospital, such as recognizing its nursing staff and treating patients like human beings. Hopkins received Magnet Recognition for nursing excellence and innovations in nursing practice from the American Nurses Credentialing Center in 2003 and won the National Research Corp.'s Consumer Choice Award as the highest-rated hospital by patients in the Baltimore area in 2009.
Lehigh Valley Hospital (Allentown, Pa.)
Billy Joel sang, "they're closing all the factories down" in his 1982 song, "Allentown." Those lyrics hit home again last year, when Mack Trucks moved its headquarters from Allentown to Greensboro, N.C., pulling another 1,000 jobs out of the city. But throughout these travails, Lehigh Valley Hospital has not only survived but thrived at a high-quality level, making it a beacon for every hospital as we face the current recession.
Lehigh Valley is living proof that a hospital does not have to be a huge academic medical center to perform at the highest levels. This 514-bed hospital is a clinical campus of Penn State University College of Medicine and has 1,100 physicians on staff, including 400 who are employed by the health network. With 10,000 employees, the hospital operates the state's third largest heart surgery program, with more than 1,200 open-heart procedures a year and the fourth-largest cancer program in the state. It offers a regional referral burn center for critical care burn patients and maintains national certification as a primary stroke center.
The hospital has placed in U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals for 14 consecutive years, including eight times for heart care and heart surgery. In 2009 it ranked in geriatric care and urology on U.S. News' lists of Best Hospitals by major specialties. It also appeared on HealthGrades' list of 50 Best Hospitals, a distinction not achieved by any of the hospitals listed U.S. News' Honor Roll of 21 Best Hospitals, although several of these big names were on HealthGrades' list of Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence, as was Lehigh Valley. The hospital also won National Research Corp.'s Consumer Choice Award for its region, was a Leapfrog Top Hospitals in the Nation in 2008 and received Magnet Recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center in 2002. The hospital's parent, Lehigh Valley Health Network, was named one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in the nation by Fortune magazine last year, for the third consecutive year.
Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston)
Even if you're not interested in the burnished past of Massachusetts General Hospital (the third-oldest hospital in the nation, with its Bullfinch Building and its "ether dome") just look at its dynamic present. This Boston legend is achieving plenty of honors in the here and now. Mass General is leading the hospital industry into the digital age, achieving 100 percent implementation of computerized order entry and convincing the great majority of its physicians to switch to electronic medical records.
As the major teaching hospital of Harvard University, with one of the largest hospital-based research budgets in the world, its researchers have many recent achievements, such as creating a strip of pulsing heart muscle from mouse embryonic stem cells, which is an important step toward growing replacement parts for hearts damaged by cardiovascular disease. Mass General is so big and influential that it has been called, in jest, "the medical industrial complex." The 900-bed medical center has more than 10,000 employees, making it the largest non-governmental employer in Boston. It admits 47,000 inpatients, handles nearly 1.5 million outpatient visits and performs 37,000 operations annually.
U.S. News & World Report puts Mass General at No. 5 on its list of America's Best Hospitals and ranks it among the 10 best in the following specialties: psychiatry, diabetes, orthopedics, digestive diseases, geriatrics, heart, kidney, neurology & neurosurgery, ophthalmology, respiratory diseases, rheumatology, cancer and gynecology. This important teaching hospital can also compete on an attribute often identified more with small, cozy community hospitals: friendliness. In 2009 U.S. News identified Mass General was one of the 17 hospitals in the nation with the friendliest nurses. The Boston hospital also won the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Magnet Hospital award in 2003.
Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.)
While Mayo Clinic is often thought of as a large multispecialty practice, it is very much an inpatient operation, using two major facilities, 1,265-bed Saint Marys Hospital and 794-bed Rochester Methodist Hospital. As a world-famous clinic with a rich history, Mayo promotes its own set of traditions, such as no "the" before its name, no apostrophe in St. Marys Hospital and, no, you do not call it "Mayo's."
Mayo has been running a very close second to Johns Hopkins for almost two decades in U.S. News & World Report's rankings of America's Best Hospitals. On U.S. News' list of Best Hospitals by specialty, Mayo ranked No. 1 in diabetes, digestive disorders, neurology & neurosurgery and orthopedics, No. 2 in heart and heart surgery and respiratory disorders, and No. 3 kidney disorders, gynecology and urology. Back in 1990 was the last time that Hopkins lost U.S. News' No. 1 spot, and it was to Mayo. Both institutions are so close in quality that the difference is well nigh imperceptible, but being No. 2 can still be exasperating. "We appreciate the U.S. News recognition, but what the magazine doesn't capture in its rankings is how those 'players' work together as a team," Mayo CEO Glenn Forbes, MD, wrote of last year's listings.
But the clinic's team-based approach, the "Mayo Clinic Model of Care," has gained favor with President Obama and other health reform advocates. This approach, melding inpatient with outpatient care, has been shown to reduce costs and uphold quality. "We should ask why places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and other institutions can offer the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm," the president wrote in a letter to Senate leaders in June.
Methodist Hospital (Houston)
Methodist is the pounding heart of the famed Texas Medical Center, an agglomeration of separate hospitals and training programs west of downtown Houston. It was at Methodist that the late heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey, MD, performed the first removal of a carotid artery blockage in 1950, the first aorto-coronary bypass surgery in 1964, the first use of a ventricular assist device to pump blood and support a diseased heart in 1966 and some of the first U.S. heart transplants in 1968 and 1969.
Today, the hospital hosts the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and Methodist Neurological Institute. Methodist ranked No. 19 on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009, and it placed 11th on Worth magazine's list of 25 Top Hospitals for Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery. It also placed eighth on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2009. This 950-bed hospital has 73 operating rooms, more than 1,600 affiliated physicians and more than 6,000 employees. In 2008 it handled 39,525 inpatients and 308,749 outpatients, and 6,500 of these patients were from other countries.
Methodist is primarily affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York and locally affiliated with the University of Houston. It is flagship of Methodist Hospital System, which operates three other hospitals in the Houston area and is constructing a 200-bed hospital and imaging center west of Houston near Katy, Texas.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago)
While its hometown of Chicago has boasted the nation's tallest building since 1973 (108-story Sears/Willis Tower just blocks away), Northwestern turns out to be the nation's tallest hospital. It has held that distinction since 1999, when it opened 17-story Feinberg Inpatient Pavilion and 22-story Galter Outpatient Pavilion at a cost of $580 million. The 897-bed hospital has a medical staff of more than 1,500 physicians who maintain faculty appointments at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
Northwestern's parent, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, opened the $500 million Prentice Women's Hospital on its downtown campus in 2007 and now is turning its attention to the Chicago suburbs, bringing services to "where our patients live and work," a system executive told the Chicago Tribune. In addition to planning clinics in suburban locations, the system acquired 215-bed Lake Forest (Ill.) Hospital along with its outpatient center in Grayslake, Ill., this year.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital won a slew of quality awards in 2009: Thomson Reuters Major Teaching Hospitals, HealthGrades Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence, Leapfrog Top Hospitals, the Consumer Choice Award, Nursing Professionals' Top 100 Hospitals to Work For and 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers. U.S. News & World Report also ranked Northwestern one of America's Best Hospitals in 11 specialties.
NYU Langone Medical Center (New York)
NYU Langone has the kind of exceptional quality that attracts grand gifts. This New York medical center's new name, unveiled in 2008, honors Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone, who has given it more than $200 million. The center's 726-bed Tisch Hospital honors another benefactor, the late billionaire and former CBS-owner Laurence Tisch. Even with the recession ripping through many a New York fortune, the hospital keeps attracting more gifts. When it received a $100 million donation this June, it was the fourth nine-figure gift in 15 months.
The generosity is being put to good use. The June donation is targeted for a state-of-the-art neuroscience institute, and this summer the medical center launched a Center of Excellence on Urologic Disease, using a $5 million gift for a new prostate cancer center and a $1 million gift to study innovative diagnostic technology. Moreover, this largesse hasn't diverted the hospital from making the small, incremental achievements that make a hospital great. Employees created a guide for discharge instructions that led to improved patient satisfaction and they reduced flash sterilization of equipment from 60 percent to fewer than 20 percent. They revamped breast implant procedures, cutting back serious infections from 5 percent to 1.25 percent. And the hospital increased specialty-certified nurses to 33.8 percent in 2009 from 27.6 percent in 2008.
These kinds of accomplishments have generated a long list of distinctions. In 2009, NYU Langone placed 17th on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals, and on U.S. News' list of Best Hospitals by specialty it scored within the top 21 slots in rehabilitation, orthopedics, neurology and neurosurgery, heart & heart surgery, psychiatric care, geriatrics and urology. It achieved Magnet Recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center in 2005, and was a Leapfrog Top Hospital for Patient Safety in 2008. In addition, NYU's Hospital for Joint Disease has been designated a UnitedHealth Premium Surgical Spine and Total Joint Replacement Specialty Center from 2007-2009.
Ohio State University Medical Center (Columbus, Ohio)
While the State of Ohio is slashing programs to balance its budget, this 900-bed medical center can sustain itself with virtually no outside funding, thanks to estimated operating revenue of $1.58 billion in fiscal year 2009. It is listed among hospitals that deliver the best quality care while attaining the highest levels of efficiency issued by the Leapfrog Group and HealthGrades. In FY 2009, the medical center logged 55,316 patient admissions, 114,137 ED visits, 979,951 outpatient visits, 15,562 inpatient surgeries and 17,949 outpatient surgeries.
OSU Medical Center's signature programs are in cancer, critical care, heart, imaging, neurosciences and transplantation. Its researchers discovered the founder mutation in cancer and developed a drug treatment to help heart failure and a cure for hairy cell leukemia. Research funding increased from $80.5 million to $205.7 million from 2000-2008. OSU is one of only five academic medical centers recognized as a top performer by the University HealthSystem Consortium and it placed 20th on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009.
The medical center's parent, OSU Health System, oversees Ohio State University College of Medicine, University Hospital East, Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital and OSU Physicians, with more than 700 physicians. In Sept. 2009, Ohio State University approved a $1 billion expansion of the medical center, including a research institute and a cancer hospital with the capacity for at least 116 more beds than current capacity. The 17-story addition, to be completed in 2015, would allow 310,000 more patients to be treated annually.
Providence St. Vincent Medical Center (Portland, Ore.)
Employees at this 451-bed hospital decided to do something grand last year. They wanted to showcase pink hospital gloves being introduced to raise patients' awareness of breast cancer. So more than 200 employees — from the labs to the kitchen to surgery — pulled on the pink gloves and filmed themselves dancing through the hospital to the song "Down" by J Shawn. Not only was it great fun for them but when posted on You Tube last November, the clip drew more than 1.6 million views and was featured on ABC Evening News.
This sort of employee engagement has benefitted the entire organization. In 2009, Thomson Reuters named Providence St. Vincent one of its 100 Top Hospitals (for the 10th time), Top Cardiac Hospitals and hospitals displaying consistent, marked improvement over five years. It also won a Gold Sustained Performance Award from the American Heart Association, Magnet Recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the Leapfrog Group's Highest Value Hospitals 2008.
Dedicated on July 19, 1875, Providence St. Vincent was the state's first permanent hospital. Part of Providence Health & Services in Oregon, a not-for-profit network of hospitals, health plans, physicians, clinics and affiliated health services. The hospital logs almost 42,000 admissions, more than 6,000 births and almost 82,000 ED visits a year. It has more than 4,000 employees and 1,800 physicians on staff. Specialized programs include Providence Heart and Vascular Institute, Oregon Medical Laser Center, Providence Multiple Sclerosis Center and Providence Stroke Center.
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles)
Like its presidential namesake, the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center's reputation just seems to get better. Last year the hospital placed third on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals, edging out luminaries like the Cleveland Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital. In U.S. News' rankings of Best Hospitals by specialty, Ronald Reagan placed in the top 10 in an astounding breadth of categories: geriatrics, urology, psychiatry, digestive disorders, ophthalmology, rheumatology, kidney disorders, neurology and neurosurgery, ear, nose & throat, gynecology and heart & heart surgery.
The 520-bed medical center was totally rebuilt in accordance with the latest California seismic safety requirements, reopening in June 2008. The one million-plus square-foot structure, soaring 10 stories, was designed by the renowned architect I.M. Pei and his son, C.C. Pei. It features large, sunny, private patient rooms with terrific views and daybeds for family members, wireless Internet access for patients and guests and outdoor play areas.
In addition to the U.S. News distinction, the hospital received Magnet Recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center in 2005 and was a Leapfrog Top Hospital for 2007. The National Cancer Institute designated Ronald Reagan's Lung Cancer Program a Specialized Program of Research Excellence, and the Integrated Healthcare Association ranks UCLA Medical Group one of California's top performing physician organizations in 2009, a distinction it has earned for the fifth straight year. UCLA Medical Group is also a qualified data registry under the 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, a Medicare pay-for-reporting program.
Rush University Medical Center (Chicago)
Rush Medical College, named after the only physician to sign the Declaration of Independence, received its charter in 1837, two days before Chicago was incorporated. A 1956 merger created Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, and in 2003 the hospital changed its name to Rush University Medical Center. Now this old institution is moving into a new stage of development.
Rush is constructing a 14-story acute and critical care tower — a $617 million project that will be its first major hospital addition in more than 25 years. When the building opens in 2012, it will house 376 beds, bringing Rush's total to 720 beds. The new facility incorporates a concept called "interventional platform" that enables multiple medical specialists to treat patients with highly complex illnesses within close proximity of the most advanced technologies. In addition, Rush completed a two-year phase-in of a new EMR system in June 2009, and in late 2009, the hospital and an affiliated orthopedic surgery group opened a five-story, $75 million orthopedic building.
Rush was showered with a number of awards and recognitions in 2009. In addition to holding national rankings in nine of 16 specialty areas on U.S. News & World Report's lists of America's Best Hospitals by specialty, the hospital received HealthGrades' Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence award, Leapfrog's Top Hospitals award and University Hospital Consortium's Quality Leadership Award. In 2008, Rush's cancer program received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer.
St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital (Indianapolis)
This hospital was founded by four members of the Daughters of Charity, arriving in Indianapolis in 1881 with just $34.77 to their name. Using a $50 grant from their bishop, the nuns converted an abandoned Catholic seminary into a hospital that eventually became St. Vincent.
The hospital is now a 744-bed hospital and flagship of multi-million-dollar St. Vincent Health. The system, part of Ascension Health, began expanding in the 1970s and now has 17 hospitals. Last year, it bought a minority stake in OrthoIndy's Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital and is about to close a deal to lease (with an option to buy) a county hospital in Salem, Ind., to be renamed St. Vincent Salem Hospital.
St. Vincent Hospital has also been reaching some impressive clinical goals, cultivating centers of excellence for women's health, children's health, cardiac care, neuroscience, orthopedics, spine, oncology and bariatrics. It was the only Indiana hospital recognized for excellence in four specialty areas by HealthGrades, ranking in cardiac, stroke, orthopedic and gastrointestinal care. In 2006, the hospital was recognized as a Select Practice Customer Quality Leader by CareScience in the treatment of pneumonia, stroke and heart attack.
Scott & White Memorial Hospital (Temple, Texas)
This 636-bed hospital is part of Scott & White Healthcare, a fully integrated health system that includes a health plan, a multispecialty practice with more than 775 physicians and research scientists and a network of 50 primary and specialty clinics covering 25,000 square miles. Scott & White also runs a 76-bed acute care facility in Round Rock, Texas, home to the headquarters of Dell Computer, so it's not surprising that hospital has had an EMR system for more than 15 years.
When Arthur Scott, MD, and Raleigh White Jr., MD, founded Temple Sanitarium in 1904, they had the temerity to hire the first female anesthesiologist in the country. Today, Scott & White physicians are still taking risks. J. James Rohack, MD, director of the Scott & White's Center for Healthcare Policy, is the current president of the AMA and helped throw the organization's support behind the Democrats' controversial health reform bill. Many physicians have blasted that decision and now the reform bill faces an uncertain future. But whatever happens to health reform, many observers think Scott & White's integrated healthcare system, bringing inpatient and outpatient care together, is the model for the future.
Scott & White was one of 10 health systems presenting at an Institute for Healthcare Improvement forum last summer titled, "How Do They Do That? Low-Cost, High-Quality Health Care in America." Scott & White Healthcare also received the 2009 Texas Health Care Quality Improvement Achievement Award from TMF Health Quality Institute, the Medicare quality improvement organization for Texas. Also, for the sixth time in a row in 2009, Thomson Reuters ranked Scott & White as one of its top 100 hospitals and one of its top 15 teaching hospitals.
Stanford Hospital & Clinics (San Jose, Calif.)
True to its location in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford Hospital & Clinics is a pioneer in EMR. It was the fourth healthcare organization in the nation to install a completely functioning and integrated electronic medical record system, reaching Stage 7, HIMSS Analytics' highest level of certification.
The organization consists of 610-bed Stanford Hospital, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford Clinics, a group practice that includes 493 full-time faculty physicians at Stanford University School of Medicine, with more than 100 specialty and subspecialty areas. Unlike most hospitals, Stanford has bucked the urge to merge. In 1997, it merged with University of California San Francisco Medical Center, then called the union off two years later.
The hospital has a medical staff of more than 1,900 physicians with an additional 850 residents and fellows and 1,500 registered nurses. It ranked 15th on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009. U.S. News recognized Stanford as a Best Hospital in the following specialties (with rankings in parentheses): cancer (10), ear, nose & throat (14), gynecology (14), heart & heart surgery (14), orthopedics (16), urology (17), kidney disorders (21), rheumatology (14) and psychiatry (15). Stanford was also named a top hospital by the Leapfrog Group in 2009.
University Medical Center (Tucson, Ariz.)
University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., pushes the quality envelope in many directions. It oversees a large, high-tech research enterprise that recently developed a two-drug therapy to reduce the risk of recurrent colorectal polyps, and yet it is also the home of Andrew Weil, MD, the bearded founder of integrative medicine, who prefers botanical medicines over prescription drugs.
While UMC Tucson barely placed in U.S. News & World Report's rankings of America's Best Hospitals by specialty, which lean heavily toward long-established university centers, this 38-year-old hospital — comparatively young, as teaching institutions go — fared much better in Thomson Reuters' survey, which gives more weight to objective measures than U.S. News does. Thomson Reuters recognized UMC Tucson last year as one of only 15 major teaching institutions on its list of 100 Top Hospitals and gave it the elite Everest Award, which goes to the top 25 on its overall list. As further proof of this hospital's coming of age, it won the University HealthSystem Consortium's Quality Leadership Award in 2009. UMC Tucson also won the Consumer Choice Award for its region from the National Research Corporation in 2009 and the Magnet Recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center in 2003.
The 355-bed hospital is part of the Arizona Health Sciences Center, adjacent to the University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Public Health. The medical center was part of the university when it was founded in 1971, but is now a separate, non-profit organization, though it still keeps strong ties with the university. The center, Arizona's only academic health sciences center, maintains a growing presence on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.
University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (San Francisco)
While ancient Parnassus is linked to the god Apollo of Greek myth, modern Parnassus is linked to cutting-edge medical achievements of the 21st century, particularly in neurosurgery, cancer care and organ transplantation. The Parnassus neighborhood of San Francisco is home to of UCSF Medical Center, which placed No. 7 on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals.
In addition to its clinical achievements, UCSF has a history of strong operating performance, with annual revenue of $1.4 billion. Patient volume has been increasing at about 4 percent per year for the past nine years, constraining capacity of this 722-bed hospital. Already with two campuses in San Francisco, UCSF is building the first new hospital in the city in 30 years, a 289-bed facility for children, women and cancer care that is scheduled to open in 2014.
Logging 750,000 outpatient visits per year, UCSF won the top place among San Francisco hospitals in 2009-2010 Consumer Choice awards from National Research Corp. While UCSF faculty provide many clinical services at UCSF, physicians from the community also play a major role. In Jan. 2009, UCSF Medical Group began an affiliation to treat HMO patients with Hill Physicians Medical Group, the largest independent physician association in northern California. UCSF says its new Orthopaedic Institute, which opened in Oct. 2009, offers the most comprehensive outpatient treatment, research and training in the Bay Area.
University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
Research spending at the University of Michigan exceeded $1 billion for the first time last year, and 41 percent of those funds were NIH grants for studies on new anti-cancer drugs, brain tumors and heart disease, to name a few. While the university is one of the nation's top five research centers in R&D expenditures, U-M Hospitals and Health Centers pay close attention to basic patient safety measures. Among process measures that hospitals report to CMS, U-M scored 100 percent for testing heart failure patients to measure the ejection fraction of the heart's left ventricle and for giving heart attack patients an aspirin when at arrival and discharge.
U-M Hospitals and Health Centers is a sprawling enterprise in Ann Arbor, including University Hospital, C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital, 120 outpatient clinics and about 40 health centers. In 2008, it counted 2,707 physicians, 1,074 residents and 3,800 nurses, serving 930 beds and 66 ORs that generated 44,683 total surgical cases a year. It has 179 ICU beds, one of the highest numbers in the country, and its Michigan Transplant Center is one of the busiest in the country, having performed over 7,100 solid organ transplants since 1964.
U-M has been a top performer in several best hospital contests, which tend to have very different slates of winners. It was on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009, placing 14th overall and scoring within the top 21 hospitals for ENT, rheumatology, urology, heart & heart surgery, ophthalmology, diabetes & endocrine disorders, kidney disorders, cancer and rehabilitation. It is also named as one of 15 major teaching hospitals in Thomson Reuters' 100 Top Hospitals last year and it was one of the Leapfrog Top Hospitals in 2008. It received the 2008 Lindberg Bell Award from the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety. In 2009 it was the highest-ranking healthcare organization in the Detroit Free Press' list of "Top Workplaces 2009."
UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (Pittsburgh)
The system's flagship hospital, UPMC Presbyterian, with 1,042 beds, is one of the largest academic medical centers in the country. It is here that Jonas Salk, MD, developed the polio vaccine and Thomas Starzl, MD, perfected liver transplant surgeries. UPMC is ranked 13th in the nation on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009. It was one of Nursing Professionals magazine's Top 100 Hospitals to Work For in 2009 and won a Consumer Choice Award for 2009-2010 from the National Research Corp.
UPMC Presbyterian, physically connected to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, formed the original core of the system, which acquired a few hospitals before changing its name to UPMC in 1990. Eight years later the health system legally separated from the university but still maintains a close affiliation with the medical school, which ranks fifth in that nation in NIH research funding. The UPMC system now has 20 hospitals and employs 50,000 people, making it the No. 2 employer in the state.
UPMC sees itself as a commercializer of medical expertise, collaborating with Cerner, GE and IBM on healthcare IT and running health businesses in four European countries and the Arab emirate of Qatar. The system's new children's hospital is one of just a few hospitals to reach HIMSS Stage 6 in electronic health record implementation. The system is unusually integrated, employing 2,700 physicians and operating a health insurance arm serving 1.4 million members.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Nashville, Tenn.)
One challenge for Vanderbilt University Medical Center's new critical care tower, which is just opening, is making sure it would have enough space for medical innovations 10 years hence. In addition to 141 new acute-care beds and 12 operating suites, the $169 million tower has three shelled floors for future growth. That's not overly optimistic for a great institution like Vanderbilt, which is constantly on the move. This 832-bed teaching hospital ranks No. 10 among U.S. medical schools in NIH funding. It houses one of the largest DNA databases in the world, but it can also deliver basic primary care, operating more than 50 satellite clinics in Tennessee and Kentucky. The campus includes Vanderbilt University Hospital, a twin-towered building with over 600 beds, Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital and the Vanderbilt Clinic.
Vanderbilt has the distinction of being one of only two hospitals, with Duke, to be highly rated in more than one major rating. Vanderbilt came in 16th on U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009, reaped the nursing Magnet award in 2006 and the Consumer Choice Award for its region in 2009. It was also named last year as one of Fortune magazine's top 100 companies to work for and placed among U.S. News' top 21 Best Hospitals by specialty in kidney disorders, urology, cancer, diabetes, ear, nose & throat, gynecology and heart & heart surgery.
Vanderbilt has one of the most sophisticated electronic medical records systems in the nation. The medical center pioneered EMR 10 years ago and its homegrown system is now commercialized as CareAlign. Clinical and research faculty use the system to improve medical outcomes, prompting Vanderbilt's designation in 2007 as an evidence-based practice center by AHRQ, the federal agency that studies quality of care.
Yale-New Haven Hospital (New Haven, Conn.)
Founded in 1826 to care for the poor, this venerable institution was transformed into a U.S. Army hospital in the Civil War and both World Wars. President George W. Bush was born here in 1946, the same year the hospital became the first in the country to embrace what was then a novel concept — allowing healthy newborns to stay in the same room with their mothers. This institution has long been the primary teaching hospital of Yale School of Medicine. In 1965, after a formal affiliation agreement with Yale University, the facility became known as Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Today, Yale-New Haven is a 944-bed hospital with 6,000 employees, a medical staff of 2,200 physicians and more than 500 residents and fellows training in more than 100 specialties and subspecialties. The hospital provides services to more than 503,000 outpatients a year and is the flagship of three-hospital Yale-New Haven Health System, a $2 billion organization. The system commands a 20.5 percent market share for the whole state, up from 19.9 percent the year before.
Yale-New Haven ranked 17th in U.S. News & World Report's list of America's Best Hospitals in 2009. The hospital's clinical firsts include the first fetal cardiovascular center in the United States in 1985; first fetal tissue cell transplant into a Parkinson's patient in 1988; first documented heart transplants of adult identical twins in 1992; and the first nerve cell transplanted into the brain of a multiple sclerosis patient in 2002.
Contact Leigh Page at leigh@beckersasc.com.
America's 20 Best Community Hospitals
Becker's Hospital Review has named the 16 best community hospitals, defined as hospitals with no or limited teaching programs and 325 or fewer beds, in America. Each hospital included on this list was selected using scores in a number of publicly-available indicators including patient safety, outcomes and satisfaction and by rankings on industry lists, including hospital rankings by Thomson Reuters, U.S. News & World Report and HealthGrades. Here are the hospitals in alphabetical order.
Aspirus Wausau Hospital (Wausau, Wisc.)
Aspirus Wausau (Wisc.) Hospital is 321-bed hospital serving residents of north central Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Aspirus Wausau Hospital is an American Nurses Association Magnet nursing facility, is staffed by 350 physicians in 35 specialties, and was identified as one of America's 50 Best Hospitals in 2009 by HealthGrades. Best known for its world-class cardiovascular program, Aspirus Wausau Hospital also provides leading-edge cancer, trauma, women's health and spine and neurological care. The hospital has received HealthGrades' Outstanding Patient Experience Award, which recognizes the top 15 percent of hospitals in the nation for patient satisfaction, as well as HealthGrades' specialty excellence awards in pulmonary care, women's health, stroke care and general surgery. The specialty excellence awards recognize the top 10 percent of all hospitals in the nation for services in a number of medical specialties.
Aurora West Allis Memorial Hospital (West Allis, Wis.)
Aurora West Allis Memorial Hospital is a 199-bed hospital located in West Allis, Wis. The hospital features comprehensive inpatient and outpatient medical services and surgery, emergency services, wound care, pain management, radiology services and a National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers-accredited breast cancer center. The hospital received HealthGrades' Distinguished Hospital Award in Clinical Excellence and Patient Safety Excellence Award in 2009. The Patient Safety Excellence Award recognizes hospitals that score in the top 15 percent of all eligible hospitals in the nation for patient safety. The hospital was also named to Thomson Reuters' list of 100 Top Hospitals in 2008 and received HealthGrades' specialty excellence awards in general surgery and stroke care. HealthGrades' specialty excellence awards recognize the top 10 percent of all hospitals in the nation for services in a number of medical specialties.
Aurora BayCare Medical Center (Green Bay, Wis.)
Aurora BayCare Medical Center is a 167-bed community hospital in Green Bay, Wis. The hospital has received numerous accolades for its programs, including recognition as the top performing hospital in the country as judged by quality indicators by the CMS-sponsored Premier Healthcare Alliance Quality Initiative. The hospital was recently named a Top 100 Hospital for Cardiovascular Care by Thomson Reuters and was recognized by The Institute for Safe Medication Practices for accomplishments in patient safety. The hospital also features an American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer-approved community hospital comprehensive cancer program and is an American Nurses Association Magnet award winner. Aurora BayCare has also received HealthGrades' Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence, Outstanding Patient Experience Award and Patient Safety Excellence Award.
Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center (Mechanicsville, Va.)
Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center opened its doors in 1998 to serve residents in suburban Hanover and Henrico Counties, rural Virginia's Northern Neck and the city of Richmond, Va. The 221-bed hospital ranks among the top 10 percent of the hospitals in the country for overall cardiac services and among the top 5 percent of all hospitals in the country for cardiac surgery according to HealthGrades. Bon Secours was named a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades and received the group's Women's Health Excellence Award in 2009, which recognizes the top five percent of hospitals in the nation for women's services. The hospital is also home to a Commission on Cancer-approved community hospital comprehensive cancer program and features the cutting-edge da Vinci Surgical System for minimally-invasive robotic surgery.
Desert Valley Hospital (Victorville, Calif.)
Desert Valley Hospital is an 83-bed acute-care hospital located in Victorville, Calif. The hospital is part of Prime Healthcare Services, which was founded in 2001 by Prem Reddy, MD. Desert Valley is integrated with Desert Valley Medical Group, one of the largest multi-specialty medical groups in the area. It was named to Thomson Reuters' list of 100 Top Hospitals in 2008 and received HealthGrades' Patient Safety Excellence Award in 2009. The hospital offers comprehensive state-of-the-art digital diagnostic, medical and surgical procedures including emergency care, women's care, cardiac care and outpatient physical therapy.
Duncan Regional Hospital (Duncan, Okla.)
Duncan (Oklahoma) Regional Hospital is a 192-bed non-profit hospital that opened in 1977. The hospital was named a Top 100 Hospital by Thomson Reuters in 2008 and received HealthGrades' Patient Safety Excellence Award in 2009. The hospital offers a variety of medical services including surgery, women's services, diagnostic imaging, a comprehensive rehabilitation unit, cardiac rehabilitation, a cancer center and home and hospice care. Duncan Regional also features a wellness center and medi-spa, which offers fitness, nutrition, massage and skin care services.
Holland Hospital (Holland, Mich.)
Holland Hospital has received numerous national and regional recognitions for its services and patient care. The 171-bed hospital is a Magnet hospital for excellence in nursing and is the only hospital in western Michigan to receive the honor. The hospital has been named to Thomson Reuters' list of 100 Top Hospitals for four years running and was named to Modern Healthcare's 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare in 2008. Holland Hospital has also been named one of the "Best and Brightest" companies in Michigan by the Michigan Business and Professional Association and received HealthGrades' Outstanding Patient Experience Award, which recognizes the top 15 percent of hospitals in the nation for patient satisfaction, and its Patient Safety Excellence Award, both in 2009.
Meadows Regional Medical Center (Vidalia, Ga.)
Meadows Regional Medical Center is an 87-bed hospital located in Vidalia, Ga. The hospital is the only Joint Commission-accredited hospital in a four county area and provides a number of services to its patients including cancer care, critical care, heart care, orthopedics, radiology, pediatrics, urology, emergency care, women's services and rehabilitation. Meadows Regional has been named to Thomson Reuters' list of 100 Top Hospitals for three years in a row and received HealthGrades' Outstanding Patient Experience Award in 2009. The hospital is also five-star rated by HealthGrades in hip fracture repair and respiratory services and received the Georgia Hospital Association's Economic Impact Award in 2006.
Middlesex Hospital (Middletown, Conn.)
Middlesex Hospital is a 168-bed non-profit hospital that has received numerous recognitions for its quality services. The hospital was named to Thomson Reuters' list of 100 Top Hospitals in 2008 and received HealthGrades' Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence, Pulmonary Care Excellence Award, Critical Care Excellence Award and Gastrointestinal Care and Surgery Excellence Award. Middlesex was designated as one of only 11 demonstration sites across the country for piloting Medicare pay-for-performance. The hospital is staffed by nearly 350 active physicians from all major medical specialties and is home to a Commission on Cancer-approved community hospital comprehensive cancer program.
Newton-Wellesley Hospital (Newton, Mass.)
Newton-Wellesley Hospital is a 234-bed hospital of Partners HealthCare, a network founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The hospital is nationally recognized for its services by a number of organizations. It has been named a top 100 hospital by Thomson Reuters for five consecutive years and received HealthGrades' Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence and Outstanding Patient Experience Award in 2009. The hospital also received the Boston Business Journal's Best Places to Work Award in 2007 and 2008. Newton-Wellesley has a full range of medical, surgical and specialty services as well as intensive care, coronary care, pediatrics, obstetrics, psychiatric services and urgent care services.
Palm Beach Gardens Hospital (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.)
Palm Beach Gardens Hospital is a 199-bed hospital serving the healthcare needs of Palm Beach County for nearly 40 years. The hospital was named one of the best 50 hospitals in America by HealthGrades and has received HealthGrades' award for clinical excellence for the last three years and its award for patient safety from 2007-2009. Palm Beach Gardens also earned HealthGrades' Cardiac Excellence Award as well as the organization's Women's Health Excellence Award. The hospital has also received the American Heart Association's Level Three Annual Performance Achievement Award, the Association's highest honor, and is the only hospital is Florida to earn this highest possible ranking. The hospital is currently undergoing a $13.6 million expansion to its emergency department, which will more than double the size of the current department and better help the hospital meet the needs of growing north Palm Beach communities.
Parma Community General Hospital (Parma, Ohio)
Parma Community General Hospital is a 321-bed community hospital in Parma, Ohio, with a medical staff of more than 500 physicians in more than 30 specialties and a comprehensive campus of services. The hospital was named to HealthGrades' list of America's 50 Best Hospitals in 2009 and has received the organization's clinical excellence and women's health excellence award. The hospital is home to a Commission on Cancer-approved community hospital comprehensive cancer program, an orthopedic center and rehabilitation program, bariatric services, a heart and vascular center and a pain center.
Parkland Health Center (Farmington, Mo.)
Parkland Health Center in Farmington, Mo., part of BJC HealthCare, is a 130-bed hospital. It was named to Thomson Reuters' list of 100 Top Hospitals in 2008 and received HealthGrades' Outstanding Patient Experience Award in 2009. The hospital is five-star rated by HealthGrades for heart attack care. Parkland Health Center provides comprehensive services for maternity, pediatrics, laboratory services, radiology, cardiac rehabilitation, outpatient and inpatient surgery, physical therapy and a diabetes clinic with renal dialysis services.
Providence Regional Medical Center Everett (Everett, Wash.)
Providence Regional Medical Center, part of Providence Health & Services, was honored as a top 100 hospital by Thomson Reuters in 2009 and as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades for three years running. The 268-bed hospital is a 2009 recipient of HealthGrades' Cardiac Care Excellence Award, which recognizes the top 10 percent of hospitals in the nation for cardiac care. Providence Regional was also named the 2009 employer of the year by the Everett Chamber of Commerce. The hospital is currently in the midst of building a 680,000-square-foot, $600 million patient tower that will house an additional 368 beds, most of them in private rooms.
Poudre Valley Hospital (Fort Collins, Colo.)
Poudre Valley Hospital is part of the two-hospital, non-profit Poudre Valley Health System based in Fort Collins, Colo. The 281-bed hospital features the Heart Center of the Rockies — Colorado's third largest cardiac program — and a Commission on Cancer-approved community hospital comprehensive cancer program, Poudre Valley Cancer Treatment and Research Center. The hospital was named as one of the best 65 community hospitals in the United States in 2009 by U.S. News & World Report thanks to high-performing service lines in endocrinology, gastrointestinal disorders, gynecology, orthopedics, respiratory disorders and urology. Poudre Valley was also named as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence and as a recipient of the Patient Safety Excellence Award by HealthGrades in 2009.
Rio Grande Regional Hospital (McAllen, Texas)
Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen, Texas, an HCA-affiliated hospital, was founded in 1982. The 320-bed hospital's physicians represent more than 35 specialties. The hospital was recently named to HealthGrades' list of America's 50 Best Hospitals and received HealthGrades' Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence in 2009. HealthGrades also included the hospital in the top 5 percent of all hospitals in the nation for women's services by HealthGrades. Rio Grande Regional Hospital features the only accredited diabetes management center by the American Diabetes Association in the area and the only bariatric designated center of excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery south of San Antonio.
Rutherford Hospital (Rutherford, N.C.)
Rutherford Hospital is a 143-bed acute-care hospital providing inpatient, outpatient and emergency services primarily to the residents of Rutherford County, N.C. The hospital was recently named to Thomson Reuters' list of 100 Top Hospitals and to Cleverley & Associates' list of 100 top hospitals based on the value they provide to their communities. Rutherford also received HealthGrades' Gastrointestinal Surgery Excellence Award in 2009. The hospital provides comprehensive medical services to its community members including cardiology services, cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, cancer care, emergency services, women's services, neurology, nephrology, orthopedics, dermatology and cosmetic surgery.
Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center (Lincoln, Neb.)
Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center is a 257-bed, non-profit hospital in Lincoln, Neb., and was named as one of the 100 Top Hospitals in the nation by Thomson Reuters in 2007. The hospital received HealthGrades' Outstanding Patient Experience Award and Patient Safety Excellence Award in 2009. The hospital has a medical staff of 475 physicians, 92 percent of whom are board certified. Saint Elizabeth is recognized as a Magnet hospital for excellence in nursing and is home to a Commission on Cancer-approved community hospital comprehensive cancer program.
St. John West Shore Hospital (Westlake, Ohio)
St. John West Shore Hospital, part of Cleveland-based Sisters of Charity Health System, is a 165-bed hospital in West Lake, Ohio. The hospital has received Thomson Reuters' (formerly Solucient's) award for the top 100 ICUs in the nations. The hospital was also named to HealthGrades' list of America's 50 Best Hospitals in America. St. John West Shore has received HealthGrades' Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence and Patient Safety Excellence Award. The hospital has also received the organization's awards for excellence in stroke and pulmonary care. The hospital is home to a Level III trauma center and a Commission on Cancer-approved community hospital cancer program.
St. Mary's Jefferson Memorial Hospital (Jefferson City, Tenn.)
St. Mary's Jefferson Memorial Hospital, part of Mercy Health Partners, is a 58-bed hospital in Jefferson City, Tenn. The hospital, which opened in 2001, offers advanced equipment and physicians trained in specialty areas such as oncology and orthopedics as well as outpatient surgery and diagnostic testing. St. Mary's Jefferson was honored as one of Thomson Reuters' 100 Top Hospitals in 2008. It was selected as one of only 23 facilities in the nation to receive the inaugural Everest Award for long-term improvement from Thomson Reuters and also received HealthGrades' Outstanding Patient Experience Award in 2009.