Top 10 Most Cost-Efficient Hospitals Achieve Great Outcomes for Less

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

The Lown Institute Hospitals Index has identified the top 10 most cost-efficient acute care hospitals in the U.S., which achieved average 30-day mortality rates under 7% and average Medicare payments under $16,000 per patient - well below the national averages. These high-performing hospitals demonstrate that it's possible to deliver excellent clinical outcomes while keeping costs down.

Why it matters

With healthcare affordability a growing concern, the Lown Index findings show there are hospitals that can provide great value by achieving strong clinical results at lower costs. Understanding the practices and strategies of these cost-efficient hospitals could help inform efforts to improve the overall value of healthcare delivery across the country.

The details

The Lown Institute Hospitals Index measures hospital performance across clinical outcomes, value of care, and health equity. Its cost efficiency metric looks at risk-standardized 30-day mortality rates compared to risk-adjusted Medicare spending. The top 10 most cost-efficient acute care hospitals on this metric include Davie Medical Center, Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, and others. These hospitals achieved average mortality rates under 7% and average Medicare payments under $16,000 per patient - significantly better than the national averages of 9.5% mortality and $17,500 in payments.

• The Lown Index data covers hospital performance from 2020 to 2022.