The most socially responsible hospital systems in America

By Judith Garber | June 26, 2024

The Lown Institute recently released their 2024-2025 rankings for hospital social responsibility, including 50+ metrics across health equity, value of care, and patient outcomes. The Lown Hospitals Index includes over 2,700 acute care hospitals, 800 critical access hospitals, and 300 hospital systems.

Here are the top ten most socially responsible hospital systems in the U.S.:

Nebraska Medicine (NE)
UC Health (CO)
St. Luke’s University Health Network (PA, NJ)
Lee Health (FL)
Medstar Health (MD, DC)
Covenant Health (TN)
UNM Health (NM)
Temple Health (PA)
UC Health (OH)
Wakemed Health and Hospitals (NC)

Most of these systems are relatively small, operating fewer than ten hospitals. All of them are nonprofit systems.

The top six systems on this list had straight A’s in equity, value, and outcomes. Three of these systems (Lee Health, Nebraska Medicine, and Medstar Health) were also ranked in the top ten systems for social responsibility last year. All of this year’s top ten hospitals also received an A grade in social responsibility last year.

Find out how your hospital system performed on the Lown Index!

This analysis of California’s state budget from 2007 to 2018 finds that to ensure the long-term health of the state, California needs to eliminate health care waste and direct the savings toward increased funding for programs that improve community conditions—like public education, public health, housing assistance, food assistance, and income support.