Healthgrades releases ratings for the region’s hospitals

Five local hospitals rated high on the 2022 Healthgrades Ratings and Specialty Excellence Awards.

Healthgrades is the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems. The ratings assess hospital performance across 31 of the most common procedures and conditions. The awards recognize superior clinical performance in 17 specialty areas and include a new category for overall surgical care.

As part of its analysis, Healthgrades has also released The 2022 Healthgrades Specialty Excellence Report: The Continuing Importance of Quality, which provides an in-depth review and data analysis to show how Americans can use quality ratings to find better specialty care.

“Every American should use this information to help them decide where to seek specialty care,” said Dr. Brad Bowman, chief medical officer and head of Data Science of Healthgrades. “Healthgrades also provides the tools for hospitals to understand how well they perform compared with other local, regional and national hospitals—and to make improvements accordingly.”

Area hospitals and awards are:

Coordinated Health, Allentown, part of Lehigh Valley Health Network:

America’s 50 Best Hospitals Safety Award

Patient Safety Award

Joint Replacement Excellence Award

Coordinated Health, Bethlehem:

America’s Best 100 in Orthopedic Surgery

Joint Replacement Specialty Excellence Award

Reading Hospital:

America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award

America’s 100 Best: Stroke Care

Critical Care Excellence Award

Neuroscience Excellence Award

Pulmonary Excellence Award

St. Luke’s Hospital, Bethlehem:

America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award

Patient Safety Excellence Award

America’s 100 Best: Critical Care, Gastrointestinal Care, Gastrointestinal Surgery, Pulmonary Care, Stroke Care

Cranial Neurosurgery Excellence Award

Neuroscience Excellence Award

St. Luke’s Hospital, Allentown:

America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award

Patient Safety Excellence Award

America’s 100 Best: Critical Care, Gastrointestinal Care, Gastrointestinal Surgery, Stroke Care, Pulmonary Care, Cardiac Care, Spine Surgery

Cranial Neurosurgery Excellence Award

Neuroscience Excellence Award

Pulmonary Care Excellence Award

The 2022 Healthgrades Specialty Excellence awards recognize hospitals that deliver superior patient outcomes across the most common in-hospital procedures and conditions, including surgical care, critical care, cardiac care and surgery, gastrointestinal care and surgery, bariatric surgery, and 10 other specialties.

The awards take into consideration Medicare patient data from 2018-2020 (excluding any patient with a COVID-19 diagnosis).

Healthgrades independently analyzes each short-term acute care hospital in the country—about 4,500 hospitals. Hospitals can’t opt into or out of the analysis.

Ratings are determined by actual clinical performance, including patient mortality or in-hospital complications. The ratings and awards do not take into consideration hospital reputation, financial information, perception, or predicted performance.

Healthgrades uses a risk-adjusted statistical model so hospitals with sicker patient populations are assessed based on their unique patient mix.

“Hospital quality ratings should be transparent and easily accessible so that all Americans can make the most informed decision about where they receive care,” said Brad Graner, president, Healthgrades. “Many people don’t realize that there is significant variation in quality among hospitals. Healthgrades is leading the way to make hospital quality information transparent and accessible so that all Americans can make the most informed decision about where they receive care.”