Healthgrades on Wednesday released its "Leading Hospitals in Early COVID Care" list, recognizing 24 U.S. hospitals that provided best-in-class Covid-19 care to their communities during the initial wave of the pandemic.

Cheat sheets: See how Healthgrades calculates its ratings

Methodology

As this month marks the two-year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic, Healthgrades is recognizing the U.S. hospitals that provided high-quality Covid-19 care at the start of the pandemic. According to Healthgrades, the hospitals included in this list acted quickly to implement strategies to support staff and deliver high-quality care while treating the highest volumes of Covid patients.

For the list, Healthgrades used inpatient data from CMS for nearly every hospital in the country, except for military and Veterans Administration hospitals.

To identify patients who received treatment for Covid-19, Healthgrades looked for specific ICD-10 diagnosis codes. The hospitals included in the list treated over 750 Covid-19 patients from January to September 2020 and obtained a below-average mortality rate of less than 24.6%.

Because initial Covid-19 outbreaks were highly concentrated in the Northeast and South, hospitals in those regions had higher patient volumes than hospitals in other areas of the country during that time. According to Healthgrades, lower patient volumes during the early stages of the pandemic do not diminish the outstanding work exhibited by hospitals throughout the pandemic.

"We salute the many hospitals and health care providers who have stepped up during the pandemic, and celebrate this list of standout hospitals, who not only saw the largest influx of patients, but also excelled during one of the toughest times our nation has seen," said Burt Kann, EVP and head of product at Healthgrades.

24 leading hospitals in early Covid-19 care

According to Healthgrades, the following hospitals provided "best-in-class" care during the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic:

1. AdventHealth Orlando* (Orlando, Fla.)

2. Advocate Christ Hospital and Medical Center* (Oak Lawn, Ill.)

3. Ascension Providence Hospital, Southfield Campus* (Southfield, Mich.)

4. Baptist Hospital of Miami* (Miami)

5. Baptist Medical Center* (San Antonio)

6. Baton Rouge General - Mid City* (Baton Rouge, La.)

7. Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak* (Royal Oak, Mich.)

8. Henry Ford Hospital* (Detroit)

9. Houston Methodist Hospital (Houston)

10. Lakeland Regional Medical Center (Lakeland, Fla.)

11. Lenox Hill Hospital* (New York)

12. Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital* (Houston)

13. Methodist Hospital* (San Antonio)

14. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center (New York)

15. North Shore Medical Center* (Miami)

16. Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville* (Gainesville, Ga.)

17. NYU Langone Health Tisch Hospital (New York)

18. Ochsner Medical Center* (New Orleans, La.)

19. Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center* (Orlando, Fla.)

20. Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center* (Baton Rouge, La.)

21. St. Joseph's Hospital (Tampa, Fla.)

22. Stony Brook University Hospital* (Stony Brook, N.Y.)

23. Temple University Hospital (Philadelphia)

24. Yale New Haven Hospital* (New Haven, Conn.)

*Denotes Advisory Board member (Healthgrades press release, 3/2; Viscomi, Healthgrades, 2/22)