St. Luke’s University Health Network is a first-time winner of the prestigious 2021 15 Top Health Systems award, part of the Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals national benchmarks series.

In addition to the 15 Top Health Systems recognition, individual St. Luke’s campuses won IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospital awards for the ninth time.

St. Luke’s is the only health system in the Lehigh Valley to receive 2021 15 Top Health Systems award the honor, and one of only two health systems in Pennsylvania.

IBM Watson Health has identified the top health systems in the United States through a rigorous, objective evaluation of 324 health systems with multiple hospitals.

The annual top health system list, published by Fortune, was established in 2009 to identify top performance benchmarks for fully integrated health systems and to motivate better performance in the health-care.

It recognizes excellence in, among other measures, clinical outcomes, patient experience and operational efficiency through effective system integration.

For the first time, the 2021 ranking introduces a measure of hospitals’ contributions to community health with a focus on equity.

Developed by a team of experts at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, it is based on three components:

- Assessing hospital contributions to community health as a provider of critical services for community health and preventive care;

- Identifying ways that hospitals contribute to community health as a community partner teaming up with local organizations to implement critical programs, and

- Focusing on ways that hospitals promote community health through their practices as anchor institutions supporting local economic and social progress.

“Hospitals save lives both by caring for individuals who are sick and by working to keep their communities healthy,” said Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement and Director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“By recognizing hospital excellence in community health with a focus on equity, IBM Watson Health is helping advance the broad and urgent mission of healthcare in the twenty-first century,” Sharfstein said.

“The IBM Watson 15 Top Health System award recognizes St. Luke’s University Health Network’s ability to provide fully integrated services and the highest level of quality care at a lower cost than any hospital network in our region,” said St. Luke’s University Health Network President and CEO Rick Anderson.

“This recognition is especially significant at this time, considering the vital and fundamental role of health systems in the battle against COVID-19,” Anderson said.

“I am proud of and grateful for the efforts of our outstanding physicians, nurses and our entire team, including their dedication and commitment to superior patient care during this challenging time,” said Anderson.

St. Luke’s campuses won IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospital awards for the ninth time, including:

• St. Luke’s University Hospital, Bethlehem and Allentown campuses, for the seventh time in a row and the ninth time overall in the Major Teaching Hospital category. In 2021, St. Luke’s University Hospital was ranked No. 1 in the United States in the Major Teaching Hospital category.

• St. Luke’s Anderson Campus, Bethlehem Township, for the third time in a row in the Medium Community Hospital category, one of 20 hospitals in the U.S.

• St. Luke’s Miners Campus, Schuylkill County, for the first time in the Small Community Hospital category, one of 20 hospitals in the U.S.

IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals is conducted annually since 1993. IBM Watson Health researchers evaluated 2,675 short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals. Research was based on Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review data, and data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare website.

“We are proud of all of the hospitals, health systems and their dedicated clinicians and staff included among the IBM Watson Health 15 Top Health Systems,” said Irene Dankwa-Mullan, MD, MPH, Chief Health Equity Officer and Deputy Chief Health officer at IBM Watson Health.