St. Francis Medical Center is one of 17 hospitals recognized for setting national benchmarks for both fastest rate of improvement and highest current year performance on Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals® balanced scorecard
St. Francis Medical Center, a member of Prime Healthcare, was recognized as one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® according to an independent quality analysis provided by Premier, Inc. The analysis consisted of an objective, quantitative evaluation of publicly available data to identify the top hospitals in the United States. The primary purpose of Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals® program is to inspire hospital and health system leaders to pursue higher performance and deliver added value to patients and communities. Participation in the study is not application-based, and award winners do not pay to market their honor.
St. Francis Medical Center CEO Clay Farell said, “We are proud to receive this distinction. All members of our healthcare team are dedicated to the details of their work to ensure quality across the continuum of care. This is a well-earned honor for the doctors, nurses and staff who are committed to the highest standards of the healthcare profession.”
Everest Award
In addition to being one of Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals®, St. Francis Medical Center was among the 17 facilities to receive the Everest Award in 2025 for setting national benchmarks for both the fastest rate of improvement and highest current year performance on Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals® balanced scorecard. This award recognizes the boards, executives and medical staff leaders who developed and executed strategies that drove the highest rates of improvement, resulting in the highest performance in the U.S. at the end of five years.
Farell noted, “We believe the objective measures used for assessment, including clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient experience and financial health, are the factors most important to our patients and our community. This recognition affirms that St. Francis provides care that is high quality, safe, efficient, and compassionate.”
The Premier national recognition is among numerous accolades St. Francis has received for clinical excellence, safety and social responsibility. St. Francis Medical Center is a recipient of a 2024 and 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Award™ from Healthgrades, along with five-star ratings for orthopedics, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, and critical care services. The hospital earned an A safety grade from The Leapfrog Group and A grades for health equity, patient safety, and inclusivity from the Lown Institute Hospitals Index. In addition, the hospital has merited consecutive Stroke Gold Plus achievement awards from the American Heart Association, attained certification as a thrombectomy-capable stroke center by The Joint Commission and maintains licenses and designations for specialized services including Emergency Department obstetrics, pediatrics and geriatrics, trauma services and STEMI care, all of which demand high standards for quality and safety.
Performance of Facilities on Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals® Program List
This year’s analysis compared the study’s top performing hospitals to a peer group of similar hospitals and found that the 100 Top Hospitals® delivered better outcomes while operating more efficiently. Compared to their peers, this year’s top performers achieved:
- 39 percent fewer inpatient deaths than peer hospitals.
- 26.5 percent fewer patients with complications.
- 32 percent fewer healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
- 18 percent lower inpatient expense per discharge.
- 0.4-day shorter average length of stay.
- A better patient experience at top performing hospitals compared to the remaining peer hospitals, with a top-box Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) score of 73 percent versus 68 percent at peer hospitals.
These outcomes add up to significant differences. According to the study’s analysis, if all hospitals operated at the level of this year’s top performers, more than 331,000 additional lives could have been saved, over 611,000 additional patients could have been complication-free and more than $15.1 billion in inpatient costs could have been saved for the 2025 study year.
This analysis is based on Medicare patients included in this study. If the same standards were applied to all inpatients, the impact could have been even greater.
“This program recognizes the dedication of our nation’s top hospitals to consistently deliver high-quality care while working to continuously improve quality, patient experience and operational efficiency,” said David Zito, Premier’s president, Performance Services. “The program’s transparent, non-biased and actionable data helps set benchmarks for hospitals nationwide and enables leaders to make data-driven decisions that benefit patients and the communities we serve. St. Francis Medical Center excels across key performance indicators, which can directly lead to higher quality patient outcomes, with fewer readmissions and complications.”
St. Francis Medical Center’s Chief Medical Officer, Anantjit Singh, MD, credits the collaboration of hospital employees, the medical staff, and Prime Healthcare for this achievement. “The data speaks for itself. This recognition reflects the one hundred percent effort we put into delivering care of the highest caliber,” said Dr. Singh. “But we provide more than just measurably good outcomes. We provide that which is immeasurable – hope and healing.”
