LVH, St. Luke’s, are among Pennsylvania’s top 10 hospitals, according to U.S. News

Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township and St. Luke’s Hospital in Fountain Hill are among the top 10 hospitals in Pennsylvania, according to rankings released Tuesday by U.S. News and World Report.

These rankings are the first since St. Luke’s vowed to no longer assist U.S. News in compiling its list, criticizing what it called U.S. News’s “misguided methodology.”

Lehigh Valley Hospital is ranked the sixth best hospital in the state. St. Luke’s Hospital came in ninth. St. Luke’s Hospital’s Anderson campus in Bethlehem Township came in 23rd in the state.

Lehigh Valley Hospital touted its ranking as the 27th best hospital in the nation for orthopedics in a news release.

“Achieving national ranking in orthopedics and earning the No. 1 spot in the region for the 10th consecutive year reflects our commitment to quality and safety,” Lehigh Valley Health Network President and Chief Executive Officer Brian A. Nester said in the release.

St. Luke’s typically earns the highest rankings on national lists, according to St. Luke’s University Health Network spokesman Sam Kennedy. He accused U.S. News of failing to base its list on objective data.

“Our letter of May 24 clearly speaks to the fact that St. Luke’s believes the U.S. News ranking is based on faulty methodology and is seriously flawed; thus, it is not utilized as a measure of quality at St. Luke’s,” Kennedy wrote.

St. Luke’s publicly shared the letter in June saying it would no longer participate in U.S. News’s rankings. The letter signed by St. Luke’s CEO Richard Anderson and Donna Sabol, St. Luke’s vice president and chief quality officer, was sent to Ben Harder, the managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News.

U.S. News spokeswoman Michelle Day said her organization doesn’t ask for data from hospitals for 35 of its 36 evaluations “so hospitals neither opt in nor opt out” from the rankings. The publication invites hospitals to complete a survey concerning maternity care, she said.

U.S. News says its rankings focus on treatment of particularly difficult patients. They assess hospital performance in 15 specialties from cancer to urology. In 12 of these, rankings are determined by a “data-driven analysis.” In the three other specialties, rankings rely on expert opinion. A full summary of the methodology is on the U.S. News website.

The June letter from St. Luke’s says U.S. News’s rankings rely heavily on surveys of doctors, making the rankings a “popularity contest.” The rankings fail to consider the cost of care, fail to appropriately weigh patients treated for chronic illnesses and place undue weight on mortality rates, according to St. Luke’s.

Last year, Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township was ranked seventh in the state. St. Luke’s-Fountain Hill was in a three-way tie for eighth place. This is the first year St. Luke’s-Anderson broke into the top 25 in Pennsylvania.

Lehigh Valley Hospital was ranked as “high performing” by U.S. News in gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; neurology and neurosurgery; pulmonology and lung surgery; and urology, according to the Lehigh Valley Health Network news release.

St. Luke’s wasn’t ranked in gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; or urology. It was ranked as “high performing” for pulmonary and lung surgery.

Here’s the 2023-24 list of the state’s best hospitals released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. The full list is on the U.S. News website.

1. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian

2. UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside

3. Jefferson Health-Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals

4. Lancaster General Hospital

5. Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

6. Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township

7. (tie) UPMC Harrisburg

7. (tie) Main Line Health Lankenau Medical Center

9. St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill

10. Temple University Hospital

11. Reading Hospital

12. Pennsylvania Hospital

13. (tie) Geisinger Medical Center

13. (tie) Chester County Hospital

15. (tie) UPMC Passavant

15. (tie) Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center

17. (tie) Jefferson Health-Abington Hospital

17. (tie) Doylestown Hospital

17. (tie) Main Line Health Paoli Hospital

20. (tie) UPMC Hamot

20. (tie) St. Mary Medical Center-Langhorne

20. (tie) WellSpan York Hospital

23. (tie) Allegheny General Hospital

23. (tie) St. Luke’s Anderson Campus

25. (tie) Independence Health System Westmoreland Hospital

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Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com.