Healthcare in the US is pretty different from healthcare in the rest of the world. Specifically, patients in the US have a great deal of choice when it comes to which hospital they attend, and which hospital they chose can have a big impact on the level of care patients will experience.
This report analyzes hospitals across the US to investigate which states offer the best access to top healthcare. This report details hospital quality, safety, access, and the hospitals on the US hospital honor roll, to rank each of the 50 states on their level of healthcare.
We ranked all 50 states based on five factors: % of “A” Grade Hospitals (patient safety), number of honor roll hospitals, number of hospitals in America’s top 50, hospitals per million people and staffed hospital beds per million people. These factors combined give each state a healthcare rank you can use as a guide to where you can find the best level of healthcare in the US.
Pennsylvania is top for the best state for healthcare in the US, with a state healthcare score of 8.04. Pennsylvania has some of the best hospitals in the US, with 1 hospital on the honor roll and 4 within America’s Top 50. Pennsylvania also has an impressive 2671.5 staffed beds and 13.8 hospitals per 1 million residents.
Runner-up on this list is Illinois with a state healthcare score of 7.76. Illinois has 2 hospitals on the honor roll and 4 in America’s top 50. Despite its somewhat lacking safety standard of just 28.5% of Illinois hospitals achieving an “A” grade, where Illinois stands out is its massive 13,515.5 staffed beds per million residents, the highest on our list.
In third place with a state healthcare score of 7.16 is Ohio. Ohio has over a third of its hospitals achieving “A” grades in safety, 1 honor roll hospital, and 4 hospitals in the top 50 in America. With 12.6 hospitals per 1,000,000 people, Ohio also provides a good amount of healthcare access to its population.
Fourth is Michigan with a state healthcare score of 6.88. Michigan has some excellent hospitals with 3 in America’s top 50 and 1 on the honor roll. Over 42% of hospitals in Michigan are rated “A” for safety by Leapfrog, and there is good access to healthcare with 2279.8 staffed beds per 1,000,000 people.
Massachusetts benefits from 2 honor roll hospitals and 1 hospital in America’s top 50, with an excellent safety record with over half of hospitals in Massachusetts achieving an “A” grade in safety. Massachusetts has reasonable access to healthcare with 10.2 hospitals per 1,000,000 residents. Massachusetts achieves a 6.48 state healthcare score of 6.48.
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If safety is your number one concern when it comes to healthcare, we have created a separate list detailing the states with the highest % of “A” grade hospitals, according to the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Guide. This guide analyses 22 evidence-based measures of patient safety including process and structural Measures and outcome measures.
With a very good 56.2% of hospitals in Virginia achieving an “A” grade in safety, Virginia is an excellent choice for hospitals for those of us that are more safety-conscious when we go to see the doctor or are expecting serious surgeries.
“A” grade hospitals
North Carolina is another brilliant choice when you are after safe hospitals. Just over 55% of hospitals in North Carolina have been ranked “A” by Leapfrog, meaning these hospitals have scored highly on the 30 safety measurements taken by Leapfrog.
“A” grade hospitals
When it comes to a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors, 53.0% of hospitals in Idaho have achieved an “A” grade for safety. Idaho has a low number of hospitals for its population, with 9.8 per million people.
“A” grade hospitals
Massachusetts is the last state on this list which has over half its hospitals graded as “A” for patient safety by Leapfrog. Massachusetts also offers some exceptional care, with 2 honor roll hospitals and 1 hospital in America’s top 50.
“A” grade hospitals
With 48.8% of hospitals achieving an “A’ grade for safety, Colorado is still an excellent choice for more safety-conscious patients. Colorado offers one hospital in America’s top 50 and also has one of the highest numbers of staffed hospital beds.
“A” grade hospitals
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The percentage of hospitals with “A” grades in safety was taken from Leapfrog hospital safety grade. The number of honor roll hospitals was taken from US.news and the number of hospitals in America’s top 50 was recorded from healthgrades.com. The number of hospitals and staffed beds per state were taken from ahd.com. All population calculations were made using population figures from populationu.com.
Each state was given a normalised score out of ten for each of the factors above before an average of these was taken to create the state healthcare score out of ten.
