

The award-winning hospitals demonstrate top performance on patients care, through clinical measures, and how efficiently the hospital performs, through operational measures. This award identifies the nation’s best providers for inpatient hospital care selected from more than 3,100 US hospitals. The 100 Top Hospitals achieve the following:
St. Luke’s is an 8-time recipient of this prestigious award, and has received this award six years in a row.
St. Luke’s was also named one of the 15 Top Major Teaching Hospitals in the nation. St. Luke’s University Hospital in Bethlehem is ranked number two on Fortune’s 15 Top Major Teaching Hospitals list and St. Luke’s Anderson Campus is ranked number 18 on its 20 Top Medium Community Hospitals list.
St. Luke’s is the ONLY hospital in the region to win this award. The only one. In fact, no other hospital in the region has EVER been recognized by Watson Health.
IBM Watson Health™, formerly Truven Health Analytics®, is a multinational Health Care company that delivers unbiased information, analytic tools, benchmarks, research and services to the health care industry.
St. Luke’s University Health Network’s hospitals received the highest possible scores – five and four stars – in the 2019 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare analysis. No other health system in the Lehigh Valley earned five- or four-star ratings. Nationally, less than one-third of hospitals received at least a four-star rating.
CMS’s Hospital Compare results were based on more than 100 quality measures collected from 4,500 Medicare-certified hospitals. The quality measures spanned multiple categories including mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, effectiveness and timeliness of care and efficient use of medical imaging.
Seven St. Luke’s University Health Network hospitals – Bethlehem, Allentown, Anderson, Miners, Monroe, Quakertown and Warren (N.J.) – were among the 877 hospitals awarded an “A” for their commitment to keeping patients safe and meeting the highest safety standards in the U.S.
St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Bethlehem and Allentown campuses received the highest possible star rating - three stars - for their active participation in the SVS VQI Registry Participation Program. The St. Luke’s campuses are the only facilities to receive the highest star rating from SVS VQI in the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Washington DC.
Operating under the Society for Vascular Surgery, the Vascular Quality Initiative is composed of 14 registries containing demographic, clinical, procedural and outcomes data from more than 670,000 vascular procedures performed nationwide and in Canada. The mission of VQI is to improve the quality, safety, effectiveness and cost of vascular healthcare.
St. Luke’s University Hospital has been named one of the “World’s Best” hospitals by Newsweek magazine for the second year in a row.
Of 281 American hospitals to make the list, 14 are based in Pennsylvania. St. Luke’s University Hospital, which encompasses both St. Luke’s Bethlehem and Allentown campuses, was ranked 7th overall in the state and is the only hospital from the Lehigh Valley on the list.
To create this ranking, Newsweek and Statista Inc., a global market research and consumer data company, designed a rigorous methodology that evaluated hospitals using data from three sources:
St. Luke’s University Hospital in Bethlehem has been ranked #1 in the Lehigh Valley and #6 in the state by U.S. News & World Report.
St. Luke’s was the only hospital in the Lehigh Valley to be rated “high performing” in all 10 Procedures & Conditions categories examined by U.S. News. Only 37 of over 4,500 hospitals nationally were ranked “high performing” in all 10.
U.S. News’ Procedures & Conditions ratings, now in their 6th year, are designed to assist patients and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to receive care for common conditions and elective procedures. These ratings extend the U.S. News mission of providing consumers with patient decision support beyond the Best Hospitals rankings, which are geared toward complex specialty care.
The 10 procedures and conditions for which U.S. News rated St. Luke's “high performing” are:
Additionally, U.S. News rated St. Luke’s “high performing” in the adult specialties of geriatrics; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; pulmonology and lung surgery.
St. Luke’s University Health Network has been named to the 2016 edition of Becker’s Hospital Review list, "100 hospitals and health systems with great heart programs." The hospitals on this list lead the nation in cardiovascular healthcare. Many have pioneered ground-breaking procedures and are still pioneering breakthroughs today. All have received recognitions for top-of-the-line patient care.
In order to develop this list, the Becker's Hospital Review editorial team examined several reputable ranking and award agencies, including U.S. News & World Report rankings for cardiology and heart surgery, Truven Health Analytics' cardiovascular hospital rankings, CareChex rankings for cardiac care, Blue Distinction Centers for Cardiac Care, star ratings from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Healthgrades cardiology awards and Magnet designation. Hospitals included in this list have received marks of distinction from these organizations.
St. Luke's Bethlehem earned a three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The hospital includes a Heart Rhythm Center and accredited Chest Pain Center and is designated as a Blue Distinction Center+ for Cardiac Care by Blue Cross Blue Shield.
This award identifies the nation’s best providers of cardiovascular care selected from more than 1,000 hospitals in the U.S. The 50 Top Cardiovascular achieve the following:
St. Luke’s is the first network in Lehigh Valley to earn the prestigious designation at all of its hospitals, including the St. Luke’s Warren Campus, which is the first hospital in New Jersey to achieve Stage 7. Less than 5 percent of U.S. hospitals have reached Stage 7, which is the highest stage on HIMSS Analytics’ scale.
HIMSS Analytics, a subsidiary of the Health Information Management Systems Society, is a healthcare research and advisory firm for healthcare organizations and governments worldwide. Following a rigorous review process, HIMSS Analytics grades hospitals on their application of electronic medical records. The Stage 7 designation recognizes St. Luke’s extensive and creative use of electronic medical records to establish better service and higher quality care at lower costs.
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has recognized St Luke’s for its demonstrated expertise and commitment in treating patients with chest pain. St Luke’s was awarded Chest Pain Center Accreditation with Primary PCI based on rigorous onsite evaluation of the staff’s ability to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients who may be experiencing a heart attack.
Top Performer on Key Quality Measures Recognition. This recognition is given to hospitals for achieving excellence in providing evidence-based care for Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia and Surgery.
The Leapfrog group is a national coalition of large employers, which publishes a biannual Hospital Safety Score. St. Luke’s has been the recipient of “A” ratings from Leapfrog. The safety score rates hospitals in the use of electronic medical record, ICU physician staffing, medication safety, infections and error prevention.
The Blue Distinction Centers (BDC) designation signifies that your facility’s cardiac program met nationally established criteria by demonstrating expertise in delivering quality specialty care, safely and effectively. Those facilities designated as Blue Distinction Centers+ (BDC+) also demonstrated both expertise and cost efficiency in delivering specialty care.
The Blue Distinction Centers (BDC) designation signifies that your facility’s maternity program met nationally established criteria by demonstrating expertise in delivering quality specialty care, safely and effectively. Those facilities designated as Blue Distinction Centers+ (BDC+) also demonstrated both expertise and cost efficiency in delivering specialty care.
St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Allentown and Bethlehem campuses have received Women’s Choice Awards® for being among America’s Best Hospitals for Obstetrics. This evidence-based designation is the only award that identifies the country’s best healthcare institutions based on robust criteria that consider female patient satisfaction, clinical excellence and what women say they want from a hospital.
The list of over 400 award winners, including St. Luke’s, represents hospitals that offer exceptional obstetric services which ranked above the national average for patient safety, thereby supporting a woman’s decision when choosing the best for her maternity needs.
St. Luke's has been recognized for exceptional work in stroke care with several Get With the Guidelines (GWTG) gold and silver awards from the American Heart/Stroke Association. GWTG awards recognize the St. Luke’s network’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
CoC accreditation recognizes a cancer program that meets the following standards:
Each year HAP honors hospitals and health systems for their innovation, creativity, and commitment to patient care through its Achievement Awards program. St Luke’s continues to hold the distinction of winning the most HAP Achievement Awards of any health system in the state, having won 19 awards since 2010.
This national award recognizes hospitals that achieved top performance in seven categories: Cost and Efficiency, Inpatient and Outpatient Evidence-Based Care, Mortality, Safety, Patient Experience and Appropriate Hospital Use.
Premier, Inc. is a healthcare performance improvement alliance of nearly 3,400 U.S. hospitals.
Premier is an industry leader, which has created the most comprehensive database of actionable data, best practice and cost reduction strategies:
NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition is awarded to physician practices, which meet standards proven through research to provide safer and higher quality primary patient care.
St. Luke’s University Health Network has more physician practices that are NCQA recognized than any other area hospital.
An accredited Bariatric Surgery program is one, which meets rigorous requirements including evidence-based clinical care, high quality clinical outcomes and strict physical environment of care standards. The accreditation is voluntary and is conducted by the American College of Surgeons Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP). St. Luke’s Allentown Campus has been MBSAQIP accredited since 2010.
St. Luke’s Regional Breast Center offers diagnostic imaging exclusively and has been designated a Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology.
Facilities that receive accreditation by the American College of Radiology have voluntarily gone through a rigorous review process to ensure nationally-accepted high practice standards have been met. This review process includes an evaluation of staff qualifications, facility equipment and quality assurance.
St. Luke’s Visiting Nurse Association has earned the SHPBest Superior performer award for Home Health and Hospice. The annual SHPBest™ program was created to acknowledge home health and hospice providers that consistently provide high quality service to patients, families and caregivers of patients receiving home health and hospice care. With the largest HHCAHPS benchmark in the nation, SHP is in a unique position to identify and recognize organizations that have made patient satisfaction a priority and have been rewarded for their efforts with high marks on the HHCAHPS survey.
SHPBest award recipients are determined by ranking the overall score for all SHP HHCAHPS clients. Providers that rank in the top 5% receive the Premier Performer award. Providers that rank in the top 20% receive the Superior Performer award.
St. Luke’s Visiting Nurse Association has earned the SHPBest Superior performer award for Home Health Patient Satisfaction. The annual SHPBest™ program was created to acknowledge home health and hospice providers that consistently provide high quality service to patients, families and caregivers of patients receiving home health and hospice care. With the largest HHCAHPS benchmark in the nation, SHP is in a unique position to identify and recognize organizations that have made patient satisfaction a priority and have been rewarded for their efforts with high marks on the HHCAHPS survey.
SHPBest award recipients are determined by ranking the overall score for all SHP HHCAHPS clients. Providers that rank in the top 5% receive the Premier Performer award. Providers that rank in the top 20% receive the Superior Performer award.