Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) has again been named by U.S. News & World Report as a 2024-2025 Best Hospital.
DHMC ranked No. 1 overall in New Hampshire among U.S. News’ 2024-2025 edition of Best Hospitals. Additionally, DHMC was named a Best Regional Hospital for Equitable Access, which recognizes success in caring for patients in historically underserved communities. DHMC was also designated high-performing in the following adult procedures and conditions:
- Aortic valve surgery
- Colon cancer surgery
- Gynecological cancer surgery
- Heart attack
- Heart bypass surgery
- Heart failure
- Hip replacement
- Kidney failure
- Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma
- Lung cancer surgery
- Prostate cancer surgery
Dartmouth Health member hospitals Cheshire Medical Center and Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital were also recognized as high performing by U.S. News for COPD and hip replacement, respectively.
“I’m tremendously proud every time DHMC is named the Granite State’s best hospital by U.S. News, and this year is no exception. It is especially exciting to see two additional Dartmouth Health members recognized as well,” said Dartmouth Health CEO and president Joanne M. Conroy, MD. “As the most rural academic medical center in the nation, the cutting-edge research, technology and standard of care available at DHMC—without having to travel to a major city—are all points of pride, but without a doubt, it’s the people of DHMC that truly make it such a special place. This year, having Health Equity acknowledged with a designation is a validation of Dartmouth Health’s commitment to rural health and to the people of our region. I extend my sincere congratulations to all our teams throughout Dartmouth Health that make us one of America’s best rural health systems.”
U.S. News evaluated nearly 5,000 hospitals across 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions; only 11% of evaluated hospitals earned a Best Hospitals ranking. Hospitals awarded a “Best” designation excelled at factors such as clinical outcomes, level of nursing care and patient experience.
“For 35 years, U.S. News has been a leading resource for patients navigating their healthcare decisions,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News. “A ‘Best Hospital’ recognition empowers patients to seek out medical care from the best of the best to treat their illness or condition.”
To calculate the Best Hospitals rankings, U.S. News evaluated each hospital’s performance on objective measures such as risk-adjusted mortality rates, preventable complications and level of nursing care. The Best Hospitals Specialty rankings methodology and Procedures & Conditions ratings methodology measure patient outcomes using data from millions of records provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This year, among other methodology refinements, U.S. News incorporated new data on care provided to patients with Medicare Advantage insurance and on care provided to outpatients, nearly doubling the number of patients included in its annual data analysis. The Procedures & Conditions ratings are based entirely on objective quality measures.