Five HCA HealthONE hospitals named among the nation's 2026 100 Top Hospitals® by Modern Healthcare and Premier

Denver, Colo. - Five HCA HealthONE hospitals were identified among the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® according to an independent quality analysis conducted by Premier, Inc. and published by Modern Healthcare. HCA HealthONE Aurora, HCA HealthONE Mountain Ridge, HCA HealthONE Rose, HCA HealthONE Sky Ridge and HCA HealthONE Swedish were included in the prestigious rankings.

For more than 30 years, Premier's 100 Top Hospitals® program has used objective, quantitative analysis of publicly available data to identify the top-performing hospitals in the United States. The program is designed to help healthcare leaders pursue higher performance and deliver added value to patients and communities by providing transparent, nonbiased benchmarks and actionable insights.

Hospitals do not apply to participate in the study, and award recipients do not pay to market their honor.

"For several HCA HealthONE hospitals to be named among the nation's 100 Top Hospitals reflects the exceptional dedication of our teams," said Dr. Mike Reitz, chief medical officer of HCA HealthONE. "Our top priority is delivering safe, high-quality care and an outstanding patient experience. We recruit top talent who bring not only strong clinical and operational expertise, but also a deep commitment to making every patient interaction meaningful. Ultimately, creating a great patient experience is everyone's responsibility, and I am incredibly proud to be part of this team."

HCA HealthONE caregivers are committed to delivering the highest quality care to every patient, and that dedication is reflected in the performance of the hospitals - some of the best in the nation. HCA HealthONE has been named among the 15 Top Large Health Systems in the country by Premier's PINC AI and Fortune multiple times. In addition, four HCA HealthONE hospitals were recognized among America's 100 Best Hospitals for 2026 by Healthgrades, placing them in the top 2% nationwide and highlighting their leadership in clinical excellence.

100 Top Hospitals® program performance

Based on comparisons between the study's top performers and peer hospitals, the analysis found that this year's 100 Top Hospitals® delivered better outcomes while operating more efficiently. If all hospitals performed at the level of this year's top performers, the impact for Medicare inpatients could include:

• More than 279,000 additional lives saved
• More than 477,000 additional patients' complication-free
• More than $14.3 billion in inpatient cost savings
• More than 21,700 fewer patients readmitted within 30 days

Additionally, this year's benchmark hospitals outperformed peer hospitals across all ten performance measures and in every comparison group. Key findings from the study include:

• A 36.8 percent difference in inpatient mortality between benchmark hospitals and peer hospitals nationally
• Small community hospitals showed the largest inpatient mortality difference, with a 49.3 percent improvement compared to peers
• Teaching hospitals demonstrated the largest difference in complications, outperforming peer hospitals by 30 percent
• Fifty-five hospitals were repeat winners from the previous year, reinforcing the role of sustained improvement and system-level performance

"Premier's 100 Top Hospitals program recognizes healthcare organizations that consistently deliver high-quality care while improving operational and financial performance," said David Zito, President of Performance Services at Premier. "By highlighting top performers and providing transparent, data-driven insights, this program helps hospitals nationwide identify opportunities to enhance care delivery, strengthen financial sustainability and improve outcomes for the communities they serve."

Premier's 100 Top Hospitals® program focuses on short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of patients. Researchers evaluated 2,540 short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals.

All research was based on publicly available data sources from 2019 through 2024, including:

• Medicare Cost Reports
• Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) data
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Care Compare

Hospitals were evaluated using a balanced scorecard of ten performance measures, including:

• Inpatient Mortality Index
• Complications Index
• Healthcare-Associated Infections Index
• 30-Day Mortality Rate
• 30-Day Hybrid Hospital-Wide Readmission Rate
• Average Length of Stay
• Inpatient Expense per Discharge
• Medicare Spend Per Beneficiary
• Operating Profit Margin
• HCAHPS Top-Box Percent

Hospitals are stratified and ranked within peer groups to allow fair comparisons. Get more information, including methodology details.