Premier Unveils 2026 Nation’s 15 Top Health Systems®, Published by Modern Healthcare
Premier,a leading technology-driven healthcare improvement company, has announced the release of its annual 15 Top Health Systems® study, recognizing the nation’s highest-performing integrated health systems. The full list of honorees has been published by Modern Healthcare, highlighting organizations that consistently deliver strong performance across clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, and patient experience.
The annual study serves as a comprehensive benchmarking tool for healthcare leaders, offering insights into how top-performing systems achieve sustained excellence across complex care environments. By analyzing publicly available data, Premier aims to identify practical, measurable strategies that healthcare organizations can adopt to improve performance system-wide.
A Comprehensive View of Health System Performance
Premier’s 15 Top Health Systems® study evaluates healthcare organizations across the United States using a robust, data-driven methodology. The analysis is designed to go beyond individual hospital performance and instead assess health systems at an enterprise level, providing a more complete understanding of how integrated care delivery models function.
The 2026 study focuses on three primary dimensions of performance:
- Clinical outcomes
- Operational efficiency
- Patient experience
Together, these dimensions provide a balanced assessment of how effectively health systems deliver care, manage resources, and meet patient expectations.
According to Premier, the goal of the study is not only to recognize excellence but also to identify repeatable practices that lead to sustained improvement across large and diverse healthcare networks.
Strong Performance Differentiates Top Health Systems
This year’s analysis found that the nation’s 15 Top Health Systems significantly outperformed their peers across all measured indicators. Compared to other health systems included in the study, top performers demonstrated consistently stronger results across eight key performance measures.
Among the most notable findings:
- 22.3% lower inpatient mortality rates compared to peer systems
- 28.6% reduction in healthcare-associated infections, indicating stronger patient safety performance
- Shorter average lengths of stay, reflecting improved care coordination and efficiency
- Lower total episode-of-care costs, demonstrating financial efficiency alongside quality care delivery
These results suggest that high-performing health systems are not achieving excellence in a single area alone, but rather excelling across multiple dimensions simultaneously. The ability to maintain lower mortality rates, reduce complications, and control costs highlights the importance of system-wide coordination and standardized best practices.
Premier emphasized that these outcomes demonstrate the potential of aligned clinical and operational strategies to improve both patient outcomes and organizational sustainability.
Evaluating 336 Health Systems Nationwide
For the 2026 report, Premier researchers conducted a comprehensive evaluation of 336 health systems across the United States. To be included in the study, systems must have at least two short-term acute care hospitals and meet additional eligibility requirements designed to ensure comparability.
The evaluation aggregates data from each participating system’s hospitals, enabling Premier to assess performance at a system-wide level rather than isolating individual facility outcomes. This approach reflects the growing importance of integrated care delivery models in modern healthcare, where performance is influenced by coordination across multiple sites and service lines.
Unlike award programs that rely on applications or self-selection, Premier’s study is entirely data-driven. Health systems do not apply for inclusion, nor are they required to opt in or pay for participation. This ensures that the findings are based solely on objective analysis rather than subjective nomination or marketing influence.
Commitment to Objectivity and Transparency
Premier has emphasized that the integrity of the 15 Top Health Systems® study lies in its independence and transparency. Because the analysis relies on publicly available datasets, it allows for consistent evaluation across all eligible systems without bias or external influence.
Key data sources include:
- Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Care Compare datasets
By using standardized federal datasets, Premier ensures that performance comparisons are grounded in reliable and widely accepted measures. This approach allows healthcare leaders to trust the results as a fair reflection of real-world performance.
Leadership Perspective on Performance Improvement
Premier executives highlighted the importance of translating data insights into actionable improvements that healthcare organizations can implement at scale.
David Zito, President of Performance Services at Premier, described the 15 Top Health Systems® study as more than a recognition program. He emphasized its role as a practical guide for continuous improvement across the healthcare industry.
According to Zito, identifying what differentiates top-performing systems provides valuable lessons for the broader healthcare ecosystem. These insights can help leaders refine care delivery models, improve operational workflows, and enhance patient outcomes across their organizations.
He noted that consistent high performance is not accidental but the result of intentional strategies, strong leadership alignment, and data-informed decision-making embedded throughout the system.
Key Methodology Behind the Study
The 15 Top Health Systems® study uses a structured, balanced scorecard approach to evaluate performance across multiple domains. This methodology ensures that no single metric dominates the analysis and that organizations are assessed holistically.
The three core domains include:
- Clinical Outcomes – measuring mortality, complications, and safety indicators
- Operational Performance – evaluating efficiency, cost, and resource utilization
- Patient Experience – assessing satisfaction, engagement, and care quality perceptions
Each domain is weighted to reflect its importance in delivering high-value care.
In addition to outcome measures, the study also evaluates performance consistency across hospital networks within each system. This ensures that high performance is not limited to a few standout facilities but is sustained across the entire organization.
Methodology Enhancements in 2026
For the 2026 edition of the study, Premier introduced updates to improve accuracy and better reflect modern healthcare performance measurement practices.
Key updates include:
- Adoption of the 30-day hybrid hospital-wide readmission measure, which combines claims data with electronic health record (EHR) information. This provides a more complete and accurate view of patient readmissions across care settings.
- Reintroduction of the Medicare Spend Per Beneficiary (MSPB) measure, which evaluates total Medicare spending during an episode of care, offering deeper insight into cost efficiency.
These enhancements are designed to strengthen the reliability of the analysis and provide a more comprehensive understanding of both cost and quality outcomes.
Premier noted that as healthcare data systems evolve, incorporating hybrid and integrated datasets is essential for capturing the full scope of patient care experiences.
Fair Comparisons Through System Categorization
To ensure fairness in evaluation, health systems are categorized based on size—large, medium, and small. This classification allows for more accurate comparisons among organizations with similar operational scale and complexity.
By grouping systems with comparable structures, Premier reduces variability that could otherwise skew performance results. This ensures that smaller systems are not unfairly compared to large, multi-state networks with significantly different resources and patient volumes.
This segmentation strengthens the credibility of the study and helps healthcare leaders better understand their performance relative to true peers.
Driving Industry-Wide Learning and Improvement
Beyond recognition, Premier positions the 15 Top Health Systems® study as a tool for industry-wide learning. By identifying consistent patterns among top performers, the study helps healthcare leaders understand which strategies are most effective in achieving sustained excellence.
The findings reinforce the importance of:
- System-wide alignment across hospitals
- Data-driven decision-making
- Standardized clinical protocols
- Strong care coordination across settings
- Continuous performance monitoring
Premier believes that sharing these insights helps accelerate improvement across the healthcare system as a whole, ultimately benefiting patients, providers, and payers alike.
The 2026 Premier 15 Top Health Systems® study highlights the continued evolution of high-performing healthcare organizations in the United States. By combining rigorous data analysis with transparent methodology, Premier provides a valuable benchmark for evaluating system-wide performance.
The findings underscore that top health systems are distinguished not by isolated achievements but by consistent excellence across clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, and patient experience. As healthcare continues to face growing complexity and pressure, the study offers a clear message: integrated, data-driven systems are best positioned to deliver high-quality, efficient, and patient-centered care.
About Premier, Inc.
Premier, Inc. is a leading technology-driven healthcare improvement company. Playing a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, Premier unites providers, suppliers and payers to make healthcare better with national scale, smarter with actionable intelligence and faster with novel technologies. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier offers integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, advisory services and other solutions in service of our mission to improve the health of communities
