Fortune and Premier collaborated to identify the top 15 health systems of 2023, considering clinical outcomes, operational efficiency and patient experience in the 15th edition of the list.
Fortune and PINC AI, the technology and services platform of Premier, used Medicare data to analyze 361 U.S. health systems made up of more than 3,300 hospitals total and discern standout organizations for its "2023 15 Top Health Systems." The annual list dates back to 2009, when it was introduced to provide an objective measure of overall health system performance and shed light on systems' consistency across its hospital locations.
The award is not merely symbolic. PINC AI's analysis for 2023 found that inpatient mortality and healthcare-acquired infections were about 21% lower, each, for winning systems compared to their non-winning peers. Winning systems had a 2.6% lower Medicare spending per beneficiary index than nonwinners.
If all systems operated as this year's winners, more than 207,000 patient lives would be saved and 432,000 patients would be spared in-hospital complications each year.
The recognized health systems for 2023 are listed below, by category and alphabetically. Categories are determined by systems' total operating expense of system hospitals, number of states system hospitals reside and the number of short-term, general, acute care hospitals that make up the system. Due to a tie in the medium category, there are a total of 16 winning health systems this year. (Performance measure results for each individual system can be found here in Table 5.)
Large health systems
Baylor Scott & White Health (Dallas)
HCA Continental Division (Denver)
Houston Methodist
Intermountain Health (Salt Lake City)
Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.)
Medium health systems
Bronson Healthcare (Kalamazoo, Mich.)
CHI Saint Joseph Health (Lexington, Ky.)
Edward-Elmhurst Health (Naperville, Ill.)
HCA Mountain Division (Cottonwood Heights, Utah)
Munson Healthcare (Traverse City, Mich.)
Scripps Health (San Diego)
Small health systems
AdventHealth-Great Lakes Region (Chicago)
CHI Memorial (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
Excela Health (Greensburg, Pa.)
Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Sponsored Ministries (Manitowoc, Wis.)
Saint Joseph Health System (Mishawaka, Ind.)