St. Luke’s University Health Network has been named to Premier Inc.’s 100 Top Hospitals list published by Modern Healthcare magazine.
This is the 12th time in a row and the 14th time overall that St. Luke’s hospitals have been recognized among the 100 Top Hospitals in the United States. St. Luke’s is the only health network in the greater Lehigh Valley region to ever earn this distinction.
“St. Luke’s remarkable 100 Top Hospital record speaks to the fact that our Network is among the very best nationwide,” St. Luke’s Chief Quality Officer Donna Sabol said. “Such consistently outstanding results are a credit to our physicians, nurses and our entire St. Luke’s team and their unwavering focus on quality at every level of our organization.”
The 100 Top Hospitals ranking, conducted annually since 1993, is among the most prestigious honors for hospitals in the United States. It is based entirely on objective data as top performers are not subjected to the exorbitant, pay-for-play promotional fees associated with recognitions from other organizations.
Premier, a health care consultancy, identified the top hospitals from a rigorous evaluation of nearly 2,540 short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals, recognizing excellence in patient outcomes and quality as well as operational efficiency, financial health and community impact.
In Pennsylvania, only five hospitals earned a place on the 100 Top Hospitals list. Four of the five are St. Luke’s campuses:
- St. Luke’s University Hospital (comprising the Bethlehem, Allentown and Sacred Heart campuses) was recognized for the 13th time.
- St. Luke’s Anderson Campus was recognized for the eighth year in a row.
- St. Luke’s Upper Bucks Campus was named for the second year in a row and the fourth time overall.
- St. Luke’s Monroe Campus was named to the list for the first time.
“Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals program recognizes health care organizations that consistently deliver high-quality care while improving operational efficiency, financial performance and the patient experience” said David Zito, President of Performance Services at Premier. “By highlighting top performers and providing transparent, data-driven insights, this program helps hospitals nationwide identify opportunities to enhance care delivery, strengthen financial sustainability and improve outcomes for the communities they serve.”
According to Premier, if all hospitals operated at the level of this year’s top performers, the impact for Medicare inpatients could include:
- More than 279,000 additional lives saved
- More than 477,000 additional patients’ complication-free
- More than $14.3 billion in inpatient cost savings
- More than 21,700 fewer patients readmitted within 30 days
Fifty-five hospitals recognized this year were repeat winners, reinforcing the role of strong system-level performance and sustained improvement strategies.
For more information, visit Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals 2026 – Modern Healthcare.
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.
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 2025, the Network earned straight A’s from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 11 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL 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
