ST. GEORGE — Cedar City Hospital has been named by Fortune Magazine as the fifth-best small community hospital in the nation.
The hospital received the honor as part of Fortune’s annual Top 100 Hospitals list. It’s not lost on Eric Packer, Cedar City Hospital CEO and administrator, that the honor comes off one of the more significant years hospitals have faced in most people’s lifetimes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is even more significant and rewarding in light of the many challenges that health care has faced this past year,” Packer told Cedar City News. “Every caregiver who works at Cedar City Hospital has played a significant role to make this award possible. I am grateful for the care and compassion that they give our patients and their loved ones every day.”
Utilizing their Watson artificial intelligence technology, IBM researchers conducted the health study for Fortune judging 2,675 hospitals based on data in the categories of clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient experience, financial health and improving the health of their community.
Cedar City Hospital received the highest marks in all five categories, including a 100% score in improving community health, which was a new category in this year’s rankings.
“I’m glad to see hospitals being judged by their community health benefits because so much of staying healthy has to do with what happens outside the four walls of a hospital or clinic,” Rob Allen, chief operating officer for Cedar City Hospital’s parent company Intermountain Healthcare, said in a statement.
The honor, the 10th time the hospital has made the list, is the latest in a recent string of awards for the hospital, with Packer being named as CEO of the Year by the Utah Department of Health and the facility recently named as one of the top rural hospitals in the country.
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