Merative, formerly known as IBM Watson Health, and Fortune last week released their annual list of the top 100 hospitals and top 15 health systems in the United States—and 83 are Advisory Board members.

Cheat sheet: See how major hospital quality programs calculate their ratings

Methodology

To create the top 100 hospitals list, researchers used public data to evaluate 2,650 short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals. The researchers examined Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review data, and certain measures and patient satisfaction data from CMS' Hospital Compare website.

To measure performance, researchers scored hospitals on four different domains, including:

• Clinical outcomes, including risk-adjusted IP mortality, risk-adjusted complications, health care associated infections, 30-day mortality, and 30-day readmissions
• Operational efficiency, including severity adjusted length of stay, Medicare spending per beneficiary, and adjusted inpatient expense per discharge
• Patient experience, which reflects overall ratings from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey
• Financial health, which included adjusted operating profit margin

In addition, researchers included a community health measure this year. The new measure was based on three components proposed by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative and the Center for Health Equity at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, including how a hospital:

• Provides services necessary for community health and critical preventive services
• Partners with local organizations to create and implement crucial programs
• Acts as an anchor institution to support local economic and social progress

To create the top 15 health systems list, researchers separately evaluated 349 health systems and 3,206 hospitals that are part of health systems using publicly available data from CMS. Health systems were scored on their performance for clinical outcomes, operational efficiency (severity adjust length of stay and Medicare spending per beneficiary only), and patient experience.

The top US hospitals

Merative and Fortune separated their final list of the top hospitals into five categories: major teaching, teaching, large community, medium community, and small community.

Among major teaching hospitals, 15 made the top hospitals list:

1. Penn Presbyterian Medical Center* (Philadelphia, PA)
2. St. Luke's University Hospital - Bethlehem Campus* (Bethlehem, PA)
3. Pennsylvania Hospital* (Philadelphia, PA)
4. St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center (Phoenix, AZ)
5. Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Temple* (Temple, TX)
6. Baylor University Medical Center* (Dallas, TX)
7. University of Utah Health* (Salt Lake City, UT)
8. NorthShore University HealthSystem* (Evanston, IL)
9. UPMC Pinnacle Harrisburg* (Harrisburg, PA)
10. Munson Medical Center (Traverse City, MI)
11. Froedtert Hospital* (Milwaukee, WI)
12. UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital* (Aurora, CO)
13. Houston Methodist Hospital (Houston, TX)
14. Tampa General Hospital* (Tampa, FL)
15. University Hospital* (Madison, WI)

Among teaching hospitals, 25 made the top hospitals list:

1. Redmond Regional Medical Center* (Rome, GA)
2. St. Luke's Hospital-Anderson Campus* (Easton, PA)
3. Mercy Medical Center-Cedar Rapids (Cedar Rapids, IA)
4. Grand Strand Medical Center* (Myrtle Beach, SC)
5. BSA Hospital (Amarillo, TX)
6. Wesley Healthcare Center* (Wichita, KS)
7. Missouri Baptist Medical Center* (St. Louis, MO)
8. UCHealth Pourdre Valley Hospital* (Fort Collins, CO)
9. Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center* (Wilkes Barre, PA)
10. Sentara Leigh Hospital* (Norfolk, VA)
11. Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center* (Las Vegas, NV)
12. Brandon Regional Hospital* (Brandon, FL)
13. Rose Medical Center* (Denver, CO)
14. Orange Park Medical Center* (Orange Park, FL)
15. Ocala Regional Medical Center* (Ocala, FL)
16. Sarasota Memorial Health Care System* (Sarasota, FL)
17. Saint Michael's Medical Center (Newark, NJ)
18. Methodist Hospital* (San Antonio, TX)
19. LDS Hospital* (Salt Lake City, UT)
20. Garden City Hospital* (Garden City, MI)
21. Swedish Medical Center* (Englewood, CO)
22. California Hospital Medical Center (Los Angeles, CA)
23. St. Joseph's Medical Center (Stockton, CA)
24. MountainView Hospital* (Las Vegas, NV)
25. PIH Health Hospital-Whittier* (Whittier, CA)

Among large community hospitals, 20 made the top hospitals list:

1. St. David's Medical Center* (Austin, TX)
2. TriStar Centennial Medical Center* (Nashville, TN)
3. Parkridge Medical Center* (Chattanooga, TN)
4. AdventHealth Shawnee Mission* (Shawnee Mission, KS)
5. Centinela Hospital Medical Center (Inglewood, CA)
6. El Camino Hospital* (Mountain View, CA)
7. Elmhurst Hospital* (Elmhurst, IL)
8. Henrico Doctors' Hospital* (Richmond, VA)
9. Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center (Reno, NV)
10. Sharp Memorial Hospital* (San Diego, CA)
11. AdventHealth Daytona Beach* (Daytona Beach, FL)
12. Genesis Hospital* (Zanesville, OH)
13. Silver Cross Hospital (New Lenox, IL)
14. Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center* (Medford, OR)
15. Medical City Arlington* (Arlington, TX)
16. FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital* (Pinehurst, NC)
17. St. Joseph's Hospital (Tampa, FL)
18. Cape Coral Hospital* (Cape Coral, FL)
19. Chippenham Hospital* (Richmond, VA)
20. Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital (Sugar Land, TX)

Among medium community hospitals, 20 made the top hospitals list:

1. McLaren Northern Michigan* (Petoskey, MI)
2. AdventHealth Wesley Chapel* (Wesley Chapel, FL)
3. OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital* (Dublin, OH)
4. TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center* (Smyrna, TN)
5. East Liverpool City Hospital (East Liverpool, OH)
6. Logan Regional Hospital* (Logan, UT)
7. Fairview Park Hospital* (Dublin, GA)
8. Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance* (Fort Worth, TX)
9. TriStar Summit Medical Center* (Hermitage, TN)
10. Maple Grove Hospital (Maple Grove, MN)
11. Desert Valley Hospital (Victorville, CA)
12. Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital* (Barrington, IL)
13. IU Health North Hospital* (Carmel, IN)
14. Wooster Community Hospital (Wooster, OH)
15. Parkland Health Center-Farmington Community* (Farmington, MO)
16. CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs (Hot Springs, AR)
17. Lake Huron Medical Center (Port Huron, MI)
18. La Palma Intercommunity Hospital (La Palma, CA)
19. CHI Health Lakeside (Omaha, NE)
20. Mercy Gilbert Medical Center (Gilbert, AZ)

Among small community hospitals, 20 made the top hospitals list:

1. Alta View Hospital* (Sandy, UT)
2. Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center (Windber, PA)
3. Spectrum Health United Hospitals* (Greenville, MI)
4. Cedar City Hospital* (Cedar City, UT)
5. Parkview Noble Hospital* (Kendallville, IN)
6. Medical City Alliance* (Fort Worth, TX)
7. Riverton Hospital* (Riverton, UT)
8. Lone Peak Hospital (Draper, UT)
9. Lakeview Hospital* (Bountiful, UT)
10. Saint Francis Hospital South* (Tulsa, OK)
11. SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital Centralia* (Centralia, IL)
12. Medical City Las Colinas* (Irving, TX)
13. Buffalo Hospital* (Buffalo, MN)
14. Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital* (St. Louis, MO)
15. Twin Cities Hospital* (Niceville, FL)
16. Sacred Health Hospital on the Emerald Coast* (Miramar Beach, FL)
17. Essentia Health St. Mary's-Detroit Lakes (Detroit Lakes, MN)
18. Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital* (DeKalb, IL)
19. CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Alice (Alice, TX)
20. OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center (Ottawa, IL)

(* denotes an Advisory Board member)

The top US health systems

Merative and Fortune separated its list of the top 15 health systems into three categories: large, medium, and small, with five health systems in each category.

The top 5 large health systems were:

1. Mayo Clinic* (Rochester, MN)
2. Penn Medicine* (Philadelphia, PA)
3. Rush University System for Health* (Chicago, IL)
4. Baylor Scott & White Health* (Dallas, TX)
5. Allina Health* (Minneapolis, MN)

The top 5 medium health systems were:

1. Edward-Elmhurst Health* (Naperville, IL)
2. Scripps Health* (San Diego, CA)
3. St. Luke's Health System* (Boise, ID)
4. PIH Health* (Whittier, CA.)
5. Cone Health* (Greensboro, NC)

The top 5 small health systems were:

1. Asante* (Medford, OR)
2. CHI Memorial (Chattanooga, TN)
3. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity Sponsored Ministries (Manitowoc, WI)
4. CHI St. Vincent (Little Rock, AR)
5. North Memorial Health* (Robbinsdale, MN)

(* denotes an Advisory Board member)

Commentary

According to Fortune, the organizations on this year's top hospital and top health systems list "represent those that held up best against the pandemic's ongoing stress test," performing better than their peer hospitals are clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient satisfaction, and more.

In particular, Merative's analysis found that if all hospitals performed as well as those on the top 100 list, 104,000 patient deaths could have been averted, 55,000 patients could have been protected from complications, and $12.5 billion could have been saved on in-patient care.

In addition, Merative found that hospitals that consistently rank among the top 100 hospitals share seven key characteristics, including:

• A culture of maturity, along with a commitment to maintain it
• Nursing excellence
• Committed leadership
• Hospital boards focused on quality
• Use of data and innovative technology
• Autonomy within health systems

(100 Top Hospitals 2022 methodology, accessed 7/5; 100 Top Hospitals, Fortune/Merative, 6/30; Top Teaching Hospitals, Fortune/Merative, 6/30; Top Community Hospitals, Fortune/Merative, 6/30; Top Health Systems, Fortune/Merative, 6/30; 15 Top Health Systems study overview, Merative, 6/30; DeSilva, Becker's Hospital Review, 7/1)