Washington Regional named #1 Hospital in Arkansas for Fourth Year by U.S. News & World Report
Washington Regional Medical Center has been named the #1 Hospital in Arkansas in U.S. News and World Report’s 2024-2025 edition of Best Hospitals. This is the fourth consecutive year Washington Regional has been ranked the state’s top hospital. U.S. News evaluated nearly 5,000 hospitals across 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions; only 11% of evaluated hospitals earned a Best Hospitals ranking.
“Washington Regional is committed to providing world class care here in Northwest Arkansas,” said Washington Regional President and CEO Larry Shackelford. “As the community’s health care leader for nearly 75 years, Washington Regional has grown into the largest health care system in Northwest Arkansas with specialists who provide high quality care for many of the most serious health issues that affect Arkansans. This recognition once again honors our 3,600-plus medical, nursing and support staff team members who are dedicated to Washington Regional’s mission of improving the health of people in the communities we serve through high quality, compassionate care.”
Hospitals awarded a “Best” designation excelled in factors including clinical outcomes, level of nursing care and patient experience. The publication rated Washington Regional as High Performing in 14 areas of care – more than any other hospital in the state. A high performing designation indicates a hospital performed significantly better than the national average in a given procedure or condition. U.S. News recognized Washington Regional as a high performing hospital for:
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm repair
- Back surgery (spinal fusion)
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Colon cancer surgery
- Heart attack
- Heart failure
- Hip fracture
- Hip replacement
- Kidney failure
- Knee replacement
- Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma
- Lung cancer surgery
- Pneumonia
- Stroke
“For 35 years, U.S. News has been a leading resource for patients navigating their health care decisions,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News. “A 'Best Hospital' recognition empowers patients to seek out medical care from the best of the best to treat their illness or condition.”
To calculate the Best Hospitals rankings, U.S. News evaluated each hospital’s performance on objective measures such as risk-adjusted mortality rates, preventable complications and level of nursing care. The Best Hospitals Specialty rankings methodology and Procedures & Conditions ratings methodology measure patient outcomes using data from millions of records provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This year, among other methodology refinements, U.S. News incorporated new data on care provided to patients with Medicare Advantage insurance and on care provided to outpatients, nearly doubling the number of patients included in its annual data analysis. The Procedures & Conditions ratings are based entirely on objective quality measures.
For more information, visit Best Hospitals and use #BestHospitals on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).