Three of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals are St. Luke’s hospitals, said to be an unprecedented achievement.

St. Luke’s are the only hospitals in Lehigh Valley to achieve this honor.

St. Luke’s University Hospital - Bethlehem, Fountain Hill, has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals in the Major Teaching Hospital category by IBM Watson Health for the fifth year in a row and the seventh time.

Additionally for the first time, St. Luke’s Anderson Campus, Bethlehem Township, was named a 100 Top Medium Community Hospital, and St. Luke’s Quakertown Campus was name a 100 Top Small Community Hospital for the second year.

IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals is one of the health industry’s most prestigious honors. It’s based entirely on an independent, scientific review of objective data from government and other publicly available sources.

St. Luke’s University Hospital - Bethlehem is the only hospital in the region to ever have been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals in the Major Teaching Hospital category.

Not only are St. Luke’s hospitals the only ones in the region to have earned the 100 Top Hospitals designation, they are the only ones to have done so in Pennsylvania in 2019 in their respective categories.

“The 100 Top Hospitals award recognizes an organization’s ability to thrive regardless of the constantly changing environment of today’s health care industry and national imperatives that continue to require the highest value of care. That means St. Luke’s is one of the nation’s best at providing the highest quality of care at a lower cost,” Richard A. Anderson, St. Luke’s President and CEO, said.

Anderson added. “It is a credit to St. Luke’s leadership team, the most talented and experienced team of health care administrators in the country, and to our outstanding physicians, nurses and other staff who day in and day out maintain an unwavering focus on quality and patient satisfaction.”

Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, vice president and chief health officer at IBM Watson Health, said, “From small community hospitals to major teaching hospitals, these diverse hospitals have demonstrated that quality care, higher patient satisfaction, and operational efficiency can be achieved together.”

IBM Watson Health, formerly known as Truven Health Analytics, uses independent and objective research to analyze hospital and health system performance in 11 areas, addressing: inpatient mortality; 30-day mortality rate; complications; core measures; 30-day risk-adjusted readmission rate; severity-adjusted average length of stay; mean emergency room throughput; inpatient expense per discharge; Medicare spend per beneficiary; adjusted operating profit margin, and Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) score (patient rating of overall hospital performance). The study has been conducted annually since 1993.

The winning hospitals were announced on March 4 by IBM Watson Health.