Hospital quality is one of the most important factors when choosing a doctor for in-patient care. Healthgrades has been helping people evaluate and compare hospital performance to make more informed choices since 1998.
Hospital quality can vary from hospital to hospital, and those differences can literally mean the difference between life and death. That's why outcomes-focused tools like Healthgrades quality awards and ratings are critical to helping people make informed choices about where to seek care.
We don’t consider the reputation
of the institution or any financial information. Our scientific and transparent methodology focuses
on what matters most to patients:
clinical outcomes.
Hospital quality is not
a popularity contest
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8. Identifying the Top Hospitals
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7. Combining Scores
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6. Calculating Scores
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5. Predicting Hospital Outcomes
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4. Analyzing the Data
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3. Considering Risk Factors
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2. Measuring Outcomes
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1. Identifying Patient Groups
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Using the combined scores from each hospital, we identify the top 250, representing the top 5% of hospitals
in the nation across a wide range of conditions and procedures.
8. Identifying the Top Hospitals
To get a complete picture of a hospital's performance, we calculate a weighted average score. This means we take into account the outcomes for at least 21 out of the 31 condition or procedure groups they are rated on.
7. Combining Scores
We compare each hospital's actual outcomes to their predicted outcomes
to see how well they performed. In other words, is a given hospital performing as we’d expect it to?
6. Calculating Scores
With this information, we create a model that predicts the expected outcome for each hospital based on their patients' conditions and risk factors.
5. Predicting Hospital Outcome
Our team of data scientists analyzes the data and identifies which risk factors are most important in predicting patient outcomes. This step helps find important patterns.
4. Analyzing the Data
To get a complete view, we consider different risk factors that could affect the treatment's success. These factors include existing health conditions, age, gender, the type of procedure performed, and admission source.
3. Considering Risk Factors
Next, we look at how well hospitals perform when treating these 31 different condition and procedure groups. We focus on two key aspects: mortality (how many patients die as a result of their condition or procedure) and complications (how many experience additional health issues).
2. Measuring Outcomes
We start by looking at different groups of patients based on their specific medical conditions or procedures.
Some groups, like carotid procedures, are based on multiple conditions or procedures (angioplasty and endarterectomy), while others, like cranial neurosurgery, are based on a single condition or procedure (cranial neurosurgery).
1. Identifying Patient Groups
At Healthgrades, we determine America's Best Hospitals using a careful scientific process that consists of eight steps.
Here’s how we evaluate hospitals for this award
Healthgrades rates hospitals across
31 condition and procedure groups, such as heart attack and total knee replacement.
Hospitals cannot
opt in or opt out,
nor can they submit their own data.
Our analysis is based
on 45+ million Medicare medical claims at approximately 4,500 hospitals nationwide for the most recent three-year period available.
To get a quick overview of how we rate hospitals, let’s start by looking at the numbers:
By the Numbers
What goes into achieving a Healthgrades America's 250
Best Hospital Award ?
TM
and Why It Matters
According to the Healthgrades 2025 America’s Best Hospitals Analysis, if all hospitals, as a group, performed similarly to America’s 250 Best Hospitals:
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Learn more about choosing high quality care
Using data from 2021 through 2023
How Healthgrades
Rates America's
Best Hospitals
and Why It Matters
How Healthgrades
Rates Hospitals
