Excela Health Recognized by U.S. News & World Report Among Nation’s Top Performing Hospitals
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GREENSBURG, PA, October 21, 2019 …Excela Health has once again received national recognition for clinical expertise and high-quality patient care, ranked among the top-performing hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 2019-20.
Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital has deemed a Best Regional Hospital - Pittsburgh, a designation given to hospitals that are top performers in multiple categories. Excela Westmoreland is specifically recognized for knee replacement, heart failure, and COPD treatment.
Spanning 25 adult specialties, procedures, and conditions, the 2019-20 rankings
evaluated nearly every community hospital in America. Excela Westmoreland was one of 569
hospitals of the nearly 4,500 reviewed to rank among the Best Regional Hospitals in a state or
metro area based on their performance in delivering complex and common care.
“In the three decades since U.S. News began evaluating hospitals, we periodically have
revamped our measures to enhance the decision support our rankings and ratings provide to
patients,” said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “This
the year we revised the methodology to incorporate new measures of patient-centered care and to
enhance how we account for differences in hospitals’ patient populations. The new model
provides a more comprehensive assessment that is useful to patients, families and their
medical professionals.”
“We are proud that Excela Health has achieved these honors, but it is our patients who
are the real winners,” said Carol Fox, MD, FAAFP, Excela Health’s chief medical officer.
“Being recognized for providing care that is effective and safe directly supports our promise to
our community to improve the health and well-being of every life we touch. Our care teams
are committed to providing the best care possible for patients over their lifetime.”
The rankings are produced by U.S. News with RTI International, a leading research
organization based in Research Triangle Park, NC. Excela Health will be included in the U.S.
News publication, Best Hospitals 2020.
The U.S. News Best Hospitals analysis covers clinical specialties, procedures, and medical
conditions. Scores are based on data that include survival, patient safety, nurse staffing, and
other factors. Hospitals are ranked nationally in specialties from cancer to urology and rated in
common procedures and conditions such as heart bypass surgery, hip and knee replacement, and colon cancer surgery. Hospitals are also ranked regionally within states and major metro
areas. An Honor Roll recognizes hospitals with an outstanding performance across multiple areas
of care.
The Best Hospitals Honor Roll has been revamped for 2016-17 to take both the national
rankings and the procedure and condition ratings into account. Hospitals received points if they
were nationally ranked in one of the 16 specialties – the higher they ranked, the more points
they got – and how many ratings of "high performing" they earned in the nine procedures and
conditions. The top 20 point-getters made up the Honor Roll.
U.S. News created Best Regional Hospitals in 2011 to provide consumers who want to stay
close to home with an overall assessment of their region's hospitals across multiple areas of
care. To be recognized regionally, a hospital must have been either nationally ranked in one of
the 12 specialties in which objective data primarily determine a hospital's performance, or
received ratings of high performing in four or more of those specialties or the procedures and
conditions.
In 2016-17, 505 hospitals were recognized as Best Regional Hospitals. In each state and
metropolitan areas with 1 million or more residents, they were numerically ranked if there were
at least two Best Regional Hospitals.