Healthgrades on Tuesday released its National Health Index, which lists the 100 cities in the United States that are "getting health care right."

10 tools for prioritizing community health interventions

Rochester, Minnesota, took the top spot.

Methodology

For the list, Healthgrades looked at data on 130 metropolitan areas. Healthgrades examined four factors to determine each city's ranking:

Mobile Health Clinics: Improve access to care for the underserved   

• Access to care—including what percentage of the city's population that has health care coverage, whether cost restricted people from seeing a doctor, and whether people ages 50 to 75 had a colonoscopy in the past 10 years;
• Population health—including what percentage of the city is in good or better health, what percentage has a "normal" body mass index, and what percentage of the population visited a dentist in the past year;
• Hospital quality—including the percentage of five-star hospitals across all quality ratings awarded in the market, how many hospitals demonstrated clinical excellence across multiple conditions and procedures, and the average statistical measure of clinical outcomes for hospitals in the market; and
• Local specialists—including the number of specialists per capita, specialists with an average Healthgrades Patient Experience Survey score of at least 4.5 out of five, and specialists with an average Healthgrades Patient Experience Survey score of five.

The top cities

Healthgrades listed the top 100 cities on their index and divided the index into three sections:

• Large cities (population of at least one million);
• Medium cities (population of between 250,000 and one million); and
• Small cities (population of less than 250,000).

Overall, the top 10 cities on the health care index were:

1. Rochester, Minnesota;
2. Burlington, Vermont;
3. Charleston, South Carolina;
4. Cincinnati;
5. Baltimore;
6. Philadelphia;
7. Gainesville, Florida;
8. Hartford, Connecticut;
9. San Jose, California; and
10. Cleveland.

The top 10 large cities on the health care index were:

1. Cincinnati;
2. Baltimore;
3. Philadelphia;
4. Hartford, Connecticut;
5. San Jose, California;
6. Cleveland;
7. Milwaukee;
8. Providence, Rhode Island;
9. Portland, Oregon; and
10. San Francisco.

The top 10 medium cities on the health care index were:

1. Charleston, South Carolina;
2. Gainesville, Florida;
3. Toledo, Ohio;
4. Cedar Rapids, Iowa;
5. Sioux Falls, South Dakota;
6. Allentown, Pennsylvania;
7. Lansing, Michigan;
8. Boise City, Idaho;
9. Huntington, West Virginia; and
10. Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The top 10 small cities on the health care index were:

1. Rochester, Minnesota;
2. Burlington, Vermont;
3. Norfolk, Nebraska;
4. Topeka, Kansas;
5. Charleston, West Virginia;
6. St. Cloud, Minnesota;
7. Billings, Montana;
8. Wichita Falls, Texas;
9. Binghamton, New York; and
10. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina (Healthgrades National Health Index, accessed 10/24; Healthgrades methodology).

Want to be included on Healthgrades' National Health Index?

Healthgrades examined four factors to determine each city's ranking. See below for Advisory Board's latest research in these four areas.

• Access to care | Report: Improve access to care in your community—with mobile health clinics
• Population health | Briefing: 3 Imperatives for investing in successful community partnerships
• Hospital quality | Cheat sheets: How hospital quality ratings work
• Local specialists| Briefing: Build a stronger hospital-specialist partnership

Then, download our cheat sheet for a summary on the methodology and metrics used to calculate Healthgrades' Outstanding Patient Experience Awards.

Access the Cheat Sheet