The top two regional hospitals in New Hampshire will hang onto their distinguished spots in the U.S. News & World Report’s state-level “<a href="https://todaytrendnews7.com/17-delaware-facilities-land-on-us-news-best-hospitals-list-for-2026/" title="17 Delaware facilities land on US News' Best Hospitals list for 2026″>Best Hospitals” list for another year, according to the 2026-2027 ranking, published Tuesday morning
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon and Catholic Medical Center in Manchester ranked first and second in New Hampshire, respectively, maintaining the positions they held in last year’s ranking. They were among 505 hospitals across the country to be recognized, out of nearly 4,500 that were evaluated, according to the U.S. News team
While an extra prestigious nationwide list of 20 “Honor Roll” hospitals — which U.S. News described as “the best of the Best Hospitals” — includes two in Boston (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital) and none in New Hampshire, the regional rankings help to give Granite Staters a useful tool to inform their decision-making for health care closer to home U.S. News senior health data analyst
“Because most patients are going to seek care in their own communities, we highlight hospitals in each state and each major metro area that are performing really great care across a wide breadth of procedures and conditions,” Wen said in a statement. “Specifically, we highlight hospitals that have at least eight high performing ratings across the 23 procedures and conditions (that U.S. News tracks), as well as maternity care.”
Wen said this year’s ranking placed a heavier emphasis on “risk-adjusted” patient outcomes to better account for how sick people are before they arrive at the hospital
Dr. Joanne M. Conroy, president and CEO of Dartmouth Health, said the repeated recognition reflects Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s commitment to exceptional care in rural New England
“Whether at DHMC or one of our community and critical access hospitals, our people are united by a shared commitment to excellence,” Conroy said. “I could not be prouder of all they do to earn this recognition.”
In a statement released by spokesperson Laura Montenegro, the leadership team at Catholic Medical Center said it’s an honor for the hospital to be recognized again in the U.S. News ranking
“This recognition reflects the unwavering commitment of our physicians, nurses and colleagues, who work every day to provide safe, compassionate care and achieve the best possible outcomes for our patients,” the statement said
This U.S. News ranking is one of many different rating systems intended to assess hospital performance. Other prominent ratings are available from Newsweek, Forbes, The Leapfrog Group, the Lown Institute, and others
Results can vary widely from one scorecard to the next, as evidenced by Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center dropping from an “A” to a “C” last year under Leapfrog’s hospital safety grading system. The American Hospital Association has advised stakeholders to keep in mind there may be some lag time in the underlying data, and not all metrics will be relevant to all patients
A version of this story appears in Globe NH | Morning Report, a free email newsletter focused on New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles elsewhere.Sign up here
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter
