St. Luke’s Named One of the Nation’s 15 Top Health Systems® by Modern Healthcare and Premier
Bethlehem Pa.– May 19, 2026 – St. Luke’s University Health Network has been named one of the nation’s 15 Top Health Systems®, recognized by Modern Healthcare based on an objective quantitative analysis conducted by Premier, Inc.
The annual study evaluates health system performance across clinical outcomes, operational efficiency and patient experience to identify organizations delivering consistent, balanced and sustainable high performance.
Participation in the study is not application-based, and health systems do not opt in or out and are never asked to pay for inclusion, ensuring an objective and transparent assessment.
Specifically, Modern Healthcare and Premier identified St. Luke’s as the #1 medium-size health system in the United States. Of the top 15 U.S. health systems of all sizes, St. Luke’s is the only Pennsylvania-based system.
“This recognition is a credit to the dedication, professionalism and talent of St. Luke’s 23,000-plus employees,” said St. Luke’s Chief Quality Officer Donna Sabol. “It provides further affirmation of St. Luke’s remarkable achievement in standardizing excellence in care and service throughout 16 hospital campuses and hundreds of outpatient locations.”
In the fall, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke’s as the nation’s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience.
Earlier this month, the Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit health care ratings organization, released new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, awarding A’s to every eligible legacy St. Luke’s acute care hospital. St. Luke’s also remains the only network in the greater Lehigh Valley region to be recognized on Modern Healthcare and Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals list (12 years in a row and 14 years total) and the only one to earn comprehensive “five stars” from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Performance Across Top Health Systems
To develop the list, Premier researchers evaluated 336 health systems nationwide using publicly available data. Systems included in the study must have at least two short-term, acute care hospitals and meet established inclusion criteria.
Compared to peer health systems, this year’s top performers outperformed peer companies across all measured performance indicators included in the study while continuing to deliver high-quality care and operational efficiency.
Key findings from this year’s analysis include:
- 22.3 percent lower inpatient mortality compared to peers.
- Fewer healthcare-associated infections, with a 28.6 percent difference in performance.
- Shorter average length of stay.
- Lower overall episode-of-care costs.
These results demonstrate the ability of top-performing systems to deliver high-quality care while maintaining operational efficiency and alignment across their hospitals.
“Achieving Premier’s 15 Top Health Systems® designation is a meaningful accomplishment that reflects a health system’s commitment to delivering high-quality, patient-centered care,” said David Zito, President of Performance Services at Premier. “This recognition highlights St. Luke’s University Health Network’s focus on improving outcomes, strengthening operations and advancing the overall patient experience.”
About the Study
The 15 Top Health Systems® study is based on a balanced scorecard of measures across clinical outcomes, operational performance and patient experience. The analysis uses publicly available data sources, including Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Care Compare datasets.
For 2026, updates to the methodology include adoption of the 30-day hybrid hospital-wide readmission measure, which incorporates both claims-based and electronic health record data, as well as the reintroduction of the Medicare Spend Per Beneficiary measure.
Health systems are categorized by size (large, medium and small) to account for differences in scale and enable fair comparisons.
For more methodology details, visit: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/awards/mh-premier-100-top-hospitals-2026/.
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley’s biggest employer.
The Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.
Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation’s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows. Additionally, the St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences opened in 2026.
In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke’s #1 – ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation’s most prestigious institutions – as the nation’s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirms St. Luke’s preeminent position as THE BEST OF THE BEST among the most respected health care systems in the United States.
St. Luke’s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2026, the Network earned straight A’s from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 12 years in a row, including in 2026 when the Network was identified as THE #1 MEDIUM-SIZE HEALTH SYSTEM IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.
Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy
