Magazine names Exeter Hospital best in N.H.

EXETER – Exeter Hospital has been recognized as a “Best Regional Hospital” for 2015-16 by U.S. News & World Report, and is tied for the number one hospital in New Hampshire along with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Concord Hospital.

Exeter was also ranked number ten in the Metro Boston Area and received a “high performing” rating for treatment of heart failure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, now in their 26th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients.

“This recognition is a tribute to our outstanding and dedicated medical staff who continuously strive to provide high quality, patient-centered care for each of our patients,” said Kevin Callahan, president and CEO of Exeter Health Resources. “We take our mission to improve the health of our community seriously, and we’re proud to be recognized for our unwavering efforts to uphold that mission every day.”

For 2015-16, U.S. News evaluated hospitals in 16 adult specialties and ranked the top 50 in most of the specialties. Less than 3 percent of the nearly 5,000 hospitals that were analyzed for Best Hospitals 2015-16 were nationally ranked in a specialty.

“A Best Hospital has demonstrated expertise in treating the most challenging patients,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “A hospital that emerged from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of.”

In rankings by state and metro area, U.S. News recognized hospitals that perform nearly at the level of their nationally ranked peers in one or more specialties, as well as hospitals that excel in multiple common procedures and conditions.

U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition or extra risk because of age or multiple health problems. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, adequacy of nurse staffing and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties.

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. U.S. News used the same data, as well as the new Best Hospitals for Common Care ratings, first published in May, to produce the state and metro rankings.

The rankings are freely available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in the U.S. News “Best Hospitals 2016” guidebook, available in August from the U.S. News Store.