Baptist Health has two of Kentucky’s top three hospitals — Baptist Health Louisville, ranked second, and Baptist Health Lexington, tied for third — in the annual U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings.

Baptist Health Louisville was also named #1 in Metro Louisville – the fifth consecutive year it has been either #1 or tied for #1. Both hospitals are listed as being “Recognized in the Bluegrass Region” which encompasses Louisville and Lexington. The University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington took the #1 spot. Norton Hospital in Louisville rounded out the top five.

The rankings, now in their 27th year, recognize hospitals that excel in caring for the most challenging patients.
Baptist Health Louisville was judged as “high performing” in all nine adult procedures and conditions rated in the U.S. News report: abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, aortic valve surgery, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, colon cancer surgery, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), hip replacement, knee replacement and lung cancer surgery.

Baptist Health Lexington earned high performing ratings in eight areas: abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, colon cancer surgery, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), hip replacement, knee replacement and lung cancer surgery.

Two other Baptist Health hospitals – Baptist Health Paducah and Hardin Memorial Health — earned marks as high performing in heart failure and COPD. Hardin Memorial is managed by Baptist Health.

High performing hospitals are in the top 10 percent of centers analyzed for the rankings. Nearly 5,000 hospitals were analyzed for this year’s rankings, and 1,628 were rated as high performing in one or more areas.

The U.S. News listing mirrors Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings announced July 27 by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services which awarded four stars to both Baptist Health Louisville and Baptist Health Lexington. Only 16 Kentucky hospitals were given four stars; none earned five stars, the highest rating. Those ratings are available on the Hospital Compare website.

U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition or extra risk because of age or multiple health problems. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, adequacy of nurse staffing levels and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties.

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News produced the state and metro rankings.

The rankings are published in the U.S. News “Best Hospitals 2017” guidebook, which became available Aug. 1. For more information, visit Best Hospitals and use #BestHospitals on Facebook and Twitter.