SMH Earns Perfect 10 in U.S. News Study, One of Just 37 “Standout” Hospitals

SARASOTA – U.S. News & World Report named Sarasota Memorial Hospital among 37 “standout” hospitals with top ratings in all 10 chronic conditions and medical procedures evaluated in its “Best Hospitals” guide this year.

As in previous years, SMH again ranked No. 1 in the Sarasota-Bradenton-North Port region and among the Top 10 in Florida.

But it was its high performance in caring for Medicare patients that earned SMH a special designation as a national “standout” hospital. Less than 1% of 4,000-plus hospitals earned top “high performer” ratings in all 10 chronic conditions and medical procedures U.S. News evaluated in 2020-21:

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Heart Failure
• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair
• Aortic Valve Surgery
• Colon Cancer Surgery
• Heart Bypass Surgery
• Hip Replacement
• Knee Replacement
• Lung Cancer Surgery
• Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)

Sarasota Memorial CEO David Verinder attributes the consistently high ratings to the hospital staff’s longstanding public mission.

“I cannot recognize our physicians, nurses, leadership team and entire staff enough for their commitment to this community and the care they provide to our patients each and every day,” Verinder said. “Their efforts have been truly heroic during this pandemic, and it is that unwavering diligence and dedication that will always set Sarasota Memorial apart.”

Now in its 31st year, the annual “Best Hospitals” rankings and ratings are based largely on objective measures such as survival and complication rates, volume and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators. In recent years, U.S. News began rating hospitals on more commonly required individual procedures and conditions, such as hip replacement and heart failure, rather than on broad specialties like orthopedics and cardiology. Hospitals that treated enough patients to be evaluated are rated high performing, average or below average in each procedure or condition.

“The goal is to evaluate how well hospitals perform in each procedure or condition and not just with the most difficult cases, as with the specialty rankings, but with the full range of patients,” the 2020-21 report states.

This year, U.S. News added a new cardiac rating that measures the quality of hospitals’ Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) programs. Developed in recent years, TAVR is rapidly being adopted as a minimally invasive alternative to aortic valve surgery. 

Although the data used in the 2020-21 rankings predate COVID-19 and rankings were not affected by the pandemic’s impact on hospitals, this year’s report spotlights herculean efforts by health professionals on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis.

“No hospital’s clinical team came through this unprecedented health crisis unscathed,” said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “The pandemic has altered, perhaps permanently, how patients get care and from whom they get it. Amid the disruption, we are steadfastly committed to providing the public with authoritative data for comparing hospital quality.”

About Sarasota Memorial:
Sarasota Memorial Health Care System is a regional referral center offering Southwest Florida’s greatest breadth and depth of care, with more than 1 million patient visits each year. Its flagship 839-bed hospital has been consistently recognized as one of the nation’s best, with superior patient outcomes and a complete continuum of outpatient services – from urgent care, trauma and emergency services to laboratory and diagnostic imaging, home health, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. SMH is the only hospital in Florida to have consistently earned the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ highest five-star quality award since the rating system launched in 2016. For information, visit www.smh.com.