America's most socially responsible hospitals

VIDEO: Our June 28, 2022 launch event featured Kate Walsh, president and CEO of Boston Medical Center; Judson Howe, president of Adventist Health in Mendocino County; Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute; Shannon Brownlee, MSc, special advisor to the president of the Lown Institute.

The Lown Institute Hospitals Index is the first to measure Social Responsibility for more than 3,600 hospitals nationwide. The Index evaluates hospitals on 53 metrics across categories of health equity, value, and outcomes. (press release | methodology)

Included for the first time this year, the Lown Institute created a tool for tracking a hospital’s COVID burden. While not factored into the social responsibility ranking, this measure can be used to provide context on how hospitals were impacted by COVID during the first year of the pandemic.

Key Takeaways

STRAIGHT “A”s: Out of more than 3,600 hospitals, only 66 achieved “A”s on equity, value, and outcomes.
Fifteen of the straight “A” hospitals earned those grades while also enduring extraordinary challenges during the first year of the pandemic, exceeding our COVID burden threshold for at least 26 weeks.
Hospitals in some major cities spent more than three quarters of the year with high COVID burdens: West Kendall Baptist, 45 weeks; Baylor University Medical Center, 42 weeks; MLK Jr Community Hospital, 42 weeks; Wellstar Atlanta Hospital, 41 weeks.
Most “elite” hospitals performed well on outcomes, but continue to fall short on equity. Out of the 20 hospitals ranked highly by US News, only three received grades higher than a “C” on the equity category of metrics.

most socially responsible hospitals in U.S.

The Lown Hospitals Index measures social responsibility as a composite of 53 metrics across patient outcomes, value of care, and health equity.

These 66 hospitals received straight “A” grades in outcomes, value, and equity on the Lown Hospitals Index, giving them the highest rankings in overall social responsibility.

Rank	Hospital	State	City
1	Adventist Health Howard Memorial	CA	Willits
2	Duke Regional Hospital	NC	Durham
3	Tristar Horizon Medical Center	TN	Dickson
4	Boston Medical Center Corporation	MA	Boston
5	Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital	CA	Salinas
6	Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center	OR	Gresham
7	Banner-University Medical Center South Campus	AZ	Tucson
8	Saint Alphonsus Medical Center – Nampa	ID	Nampa
9	Saint Alphonsus Medical Center – Ontario	OR	Ontario
10	Denver Health Medical Center	CO	Denver
11	St. Rose Dominican Hospitals – Rose De Lima Campus	NV	Henderson
12	Centura Health-St. Mary Corwin Medical Center	CO	Pueblo
13	Saint Joseph Berea	KY	Berea
14	St. Charles Prineville	OR	Prineville
15	Metrohealth System	OH	Cleveland
16	Stoughton Hospital	WI	Stoughton
17	Sutter Solano Medical Center	CA	Vallejo
18	Providence Milwaukie Hospital	OR	Milwaukie
19	North Suburban Medical Center	CO	Thornton
20	Baystate Wing Hospital and Medical Centers	MA	Palmer
21	Medical Center of the Rockies	CO	Loveland
22	Atrium Health University City	NC	Charlotte
23	Lee Memorial Hospital	FL	Fort Myers
24	Excela Health Frick Hospital	PA	Mount Pleasant
25	Tristar Stonecrest Medical Center	TN	Smyrna
26	Providence St. Joseph Medical Center	MT	Polson
27	California Pacific Medical Center – Mission Bernal	CA	San Francisco
28	Saint Michael’s Medical Center	NJ	Newark
29	Doctors Hospital	OH	Columbus
30	Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital	MI	Cadillac
31	Riverside University Health System-Medical Center	CA	Moreno Valley
32	Garden Grove Hospital & Medical Center	CA	Garden Grove
33	Uintah Basin Medical Center	UT	Roosevelt
34	Grady Memorial Hospital	OH	Delaware
35	Chi Health Immanuel	NE	Omaha
36	St. Elizabeth Community Hospital	CA	Red Bluff
37	Petaluma Valley Hospital	CA	Petaluma
38	Research Medical Center	MO	Kansas City
39	Alliance Community Hospital	OH	Alliance
40	Tristar Southern Hills Medical Center	TN	Nashville
41	Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center	VA	Fredericksburg
42	St. Luke’s Hospital – Monroe Campus	PA	Stroudsburg
43	Gouverneur Hospital	NY	Gouverneur
44	Landmark Medical Center	RI	Woonsocket
45	St. Charles Redmond	OR	Redmond
46	Alaska Regional Hospital	AK	Anchorage
47	St. Anthony Hospital	OR	Pendleton
48	Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center	CA	Chula Vista
49	Lawrence General Hospital	MA	Lawrence
50	Dallas Regional Medical Center	TX	Mesquite
51	Promedica Bixby Hospital	MI	Adrian
52	Wakemed Raleigh Campus	NC	Raleigh
53	Multicare Auburn Medical Center	WA	Auburn
54	Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital – Plymouth	MA	Plymouth
55	Paradise Valley Hospital	CA	National City
56	SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – St. Louis	MO	Richmond Heights
57	Angel Medical Center	NC	Franklin
58	JPS Health Network	TX	Fort Worth
59	Peninsula Regional Medical Center	MD	Salisbury
60	Parkland Health Center	MO	Farmington
61	Providence Holy Cross Medical Center	CA	Mission Hills
62	St. Bernardine Medical Center	CA	San Bernardino
63	St. Mary’s General Hospital	NJ	Passaic
64	John Randolph Medical Center	VA	Hopewell
65	UofL Health – Jewish Hospital	KY	Louisville
66	Samaritan Hospital	NY	Troy

STRAIGHT “A” HOSPITALS WITH HIGH COVID BURDENs

These 15 hospitals received “A” grades in outcomes, value, and equity on the Lown Hospitals Index, while also experiencing a high COVID burden.

COVID burden is measured as the number of weeks in which ten percent or more of the hospital’s beds were filled with COVID-19 patients, from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. High COVID burden is defined as having 26 or more weeks in which ten percent or more of hospital beds had COVID-19 patients.

Name	State	City	LIHI rank	COVID Burden (Weeks)	Number of beds
Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center	CA	Chula Vista	48	42	243
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital – Plymouth	MA	Plymouth	54	38	145
JPS Health Network	TX	Fort Worth	58	38	422
Multicare Auburn Medical Center	WA	Auburn	53	37	73
Saint Michael’s Medical Center	NJ	Newark	28	36	147
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center	CA	Mission Hills	61	35	316
Dallas Regional Medical Center	TX	Mesquite	50	32	202
Banner-University Medical Center South Campus	AZ	Tucson	7	31	144
North Suburban Medical Center	CO	Thornton	19	30	139
Research Medical Center	MO	Kansas City	38	30	347
Excela Health Frick Hospital	PA	Mount Pleasant	24	29	33
Tristar Southern Hills Medical Center	TN	Nashville	40	28	308
St. Bernardine Medical Center	CA	San Bernardino	62	28	101
St. Mary’s General Hospital	NJ	Passaic	63	27	145
Parkland Health Center	MO	Farmington	60	26	92

#1 Most socially responsible hospital in each state

The highest-ranked hospital for social responsibility in each state.

State	Name	City	LIHI Rank
Alabama	Walker Baptist Medical Center	Jasper	742
Alaska	Alaska Regional Hospital	Anchorage	46
Arizona	Banner-University Medical Center South Campus	Tucson	7
Arkansas	Baptist Health Medical Center Heber Spings	Heber Springs	602
California	Adventist Health Howard Memorial	Willits	1
Colorado	Denver Health Medical Center	Denver	10
Connecticut	Griffin Hospital	Derby	157
Delaware	Beebe Medical Center	Lewes	302
Florida	Lee Memorial Hospital	Fort Myers	23
Georgia	Emory University Hospital Midtown	Atlanta	84
Hawaii	Wahiawa General Hospital	Wahiawa	144
Idaho	Saint Alphonsus Medical Center – Nampa	Nampa	8
Ilinois	Rush University Medical Center	Chicago	115
Indiana	Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center – Plymouth	Plymouth	220
Iowa	St. Lukes Hospital	Cedar Rapids	114
Kansas	McPherson Hospital	McPherson	167
Kentucky	Saint Joseph Berea	Berea	13
Louisiana	Baton Rouge General Medical Center	Baton Rouge	287
Maine	Southern Maine Health Care	Biddeford	86
Maryland	Peninsula Regional Medical Center	Salisbury	59
Massachusetts	Boston Medical Center Corporation	Boston	4
Michigan	Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital	Cadillac	30
Minnesota	Mayo Clinic Health System – Fairmont	Fairmont	70
Mississippi	Baptist Memorial Hospital North MS	Oxford	373
Missouri	Research Medical Center	Kansas City	38
Montana	Providence St. Joseph Medical Center	Polson	26
Nebraska	Chi Health Immanuel	Omaha	35
Nevada	St. Rose Dominican Hospitals – Rose De Lima Campus	Henderson	11
New Hampshire	Monadnock Community Hospital	Peterborough	139
New Jersey	Saint Michael’s Medical Center	Newark	28
New Mexico	Lovelace Westside Hospital	Albuquerque	152
New York	Gouverneur Hospital	Gouverneur	43
North Carolina	Duke Regional Hospital	Durham	2
North Dakota	CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson	Dickinson	186
Ohio	Metrohealth System	Cleveland	15
Oklahoma	Integris Bass Baptist Health Center	Enid	262
Oregon	Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center	Gresham	6
Pennsylvania	Excela Health Frick Hospital	Mount Pleasant	24
Rhode Island	Landmark Medical Center	Woonsocket	44
South Carolina	GHS Hillcrest Memorial Hospital	Simpsonville	181
South Dakota	Avera Queen of Peace	Mitchell	413
Tennessee	Tristar Horizon Medical Center	Dickson	3
Texas	Dallas Regional Medical Center	Mesquite	50
Utah	Uintah Basin Medical Center	Roosevelt	33
Vermont	Rutland Regional Medical Center	Rutland	371
Virginia	Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center	Fredericksburg	41
Washington, DC	United Medical Center	Washington	333
Washington.	Multicare Auburn Medical Center	Auburn	53
West Virginia	Berkeley Medical Center	Martinsburg	702
Wisconsin	Stoughton Hospital	Stoughton	16
Wyoming	Powell Valley Hospital	Powell	595

U.S. News Honor roll hospitals

Here’s how the 2022-23 US News Honor Roll hospitals performed on the Lown Hospitals Index for Social Responsibility. None of these hospitals made it to the top 100 of the Lown ranking. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA is #2 on the US News ranking, but ranks #2494 on the Lown Index.

US News ranking	Hospital	State	City	Lown rank
1	Mayo Clinic Hospital Rochester	MN	Rochester	409
2	Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	CA	Los Angeles	2494
3	NYU Langone Hospitals	NY	New York	833
4	Cleveland Clinic	OH	Cleveland	562
5 (tie)	Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center	CA	Los Angeles	832
5 (tie)	The Johns Hopkins Hospital	MD	Baltimore	971
7	New York-Presbyterian Hospital	NY	New York	819
8	Massachusetts General Hospital	MA	Boston	639
9	Northwestern Memorial Hospital	IL	Chicago	1408
10	Stanford Health Care	CA	Stanford	1293
11	Barnes Jewish Hospital	MO	Saint Louis	1615
12	UCSF Medical Center	CA	San Francisco	206
13	Hospital of University of Pennsylvania	PA	Philadelphia	625
14	Brigham and Women’s Hospital	MA	Boston	2225
15	Houston Methodist Hospital	TX	Houston	2157
16	Mount Sinai Hospital	NY	New York	552
17	Michigan Medicine	MI	Ann Arbor	615
18	Mayo Clinic Hospital	AZ	Phoenix	1292
19	Vanderbilt University Medical Center	TN	Nashville	664
20	Rush University Medical Center	IL	Chicago	115

highest Covid burden HOSPiTALS in major cities

The following hospitals had the greatest COVID burdens of the hospitals in their city, measured as number of weeks with at least ten percent of beds with COVID-19 patients. For some hospitals, their COVID burden was double the regional average.

COVID burden is measured as the number of weeks in which ten percent or more of the hospital’s beds were filled with COVID-19 patients, from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021.

City	Name	State	COVID Burden (Weeks)	Regional average (Weeks)
Atlanta	Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center	GA	41	26
Baltimore	Medstar Franklin Square Medical Center	MD	39	20
Boston	Boston Medical Center Corporation	MA	22	14
Charlotte	Atrium Health Pineville	NC	35	23
Chicago	Swedish Covenant Hospital	IL	37	20
Cleveland	UH Cleveland Medical Center	OH	29	13
Dallas	Baylor University Medical Center	TX	42	21
Detroit	Detroit Receiving Hospital & University Health Center	MI	20	14
Fort Worth	JPS Health Network	TX	38	25
Houston	St. Luke’s Hospital at the Vintage	TX	34	20
Indianapolis	Franciscan Health Indianapolis	IN	33	14
Kansas City	Research Medical Center	MO	30	12
Los Angeles	Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital	CA	42	23
Miami	West Kendall Baptist Hospital	FL	45	28
New York	Mount Sinai Hospital	NY	31	21
Philadelphia	Chestnut Hill Hospital	PA	39	19
Phoenix	Abrazo Central Campus	AZ	33	22
Queens	Flushing Hospital Medical Center	NY	35	23
Saint Louis	Christian Hospital Northeast-Northwest	MO	39	12
Washington	Medstar Washington Hospital Center	DC	39	22

methodology

Social Responsibility

The Lown Hospitals Index measures hospital social responsibility as a composite of 53 metrics across patient outcomes, value of care, and health equity. Outcomes, value, and equity were weighted at a ratio of 40, 30, and 30 percent, respectively. Hospitals with “A” grades on all three categories of metrics received the highest ranking on social responsibility.

For more details, see our Methodology page.

COVID Burden

The first year of COVID-19 was an incredibly difficult year for hospitals, as they dealt with an unknown virus, shortages of staff and equipment, financial difficulties, and other challenges.

To better understand how the pandemic impacted hospitals, we have included a measure of COVID burden for every hospital on the Lown Hospitals Index, which can be found on each hospital’s profile page. We report:

The number of weeks from March 2020 – March 2021 in which hospitals had at least 10% of their inpatient beds filled with COVID-19 patients.
The maximum proportion of COVID-19 patients in the hospital over a 3-week period, within the time period of March 2020 – March 2021

These metrics do not impact the Social Responsibility ranking.

Data sources and analysis

For the time period July 31, 2020 – February 28, 2021, data on hospitals’ inpatient beds with COVID-19 patients was taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s COVID-19 Reported Patient Impact and Hospital Capacity by Facility.

We used this data and the Medicare Fee-For-Service data from the CMS Chronic Conditions Warehouse to estimate the total number of patients with COVID-19 prior to the CDC’s starting collection date. Patients were identified in the data set if they had a principal or admitting diagnosis of Covid-19. We fitted a linear regression at the hospital level to the CDC data and the Medicare FFS COVID-19 patients to estimate the number of total patients with COVID-19 from March 1, 2020 to the CDC collection start date (July 31, 2020 for most hospitals).

We found the number of inpatient beds (including intensive care units) from a hospital’s 2019 Hospital Cost Report, which are reported by CMS. Because available hospital beds can fluctuate due to staffing changes, we used a fixed number of hospital beds reported prior to the pandemic as a benchmark. The acute bed count includes total adult and pediatric beds, intensive care unit, coronary care unit, burn unit, surgical intensive care unit, other special care, and nursery.

We calculated two metrics to display on the website and dashboard. COVID Burden was calculated as the number of weeks where the percentage of COVID-19 hospitalized patients were 10% or more of a hospital’s 2019 inpatient bed count. To calculate Maximum COVID Beds, we found the three week rolling average of the number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients in the hospital, and then found the maximum of this value in the hospital up to February 28, 2021. We reported this value as a percentage of the hospital’s 2019 inpatient bed count.