Biz ‘Bite:’ Saint Alphonsus takes top national honors for social responsibility

Two Treasure Valley hospitals made the Lown Institute’s top-10 in the nation list for social responsibility. The Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Nampa ranked eighth and the Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Ontario ranked ninth. The rankings use 53 different metrics to evaluate a hospital’s performance in diversity, equity, inclusivity, community benefit, cost efficiency, safety and patient outcomes. The institute ranked 3,606 hospitals. There are 6,093 community hospitals in the United States.

In addition to Saint Alphonsus in Nampa and Ontario, eight other hospitals serving Idaho residents also received “A” grades for social responsibility: West Valley Medical Center (rank 83), Saint Alphonsus Boise (rank 146), St. Luke’s Boise (rank 632), Kootenai Health (rank 663), Madisonhealth (rank 674), St. Luke’s Nampa (rank 865), St. Luke’s Elmore (rank 1181) and Cassia Regional Medical Center (rank 1,194).

Eight Idaho hospitals received “B” grades for social responsibility: Bingham Memorial, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, St. Luke’s Magic Valley, Minidoka Memorial, Gritman Medical Center, Steele Memorial, Portneuf Medical Center and Weiser Memorial. Saint Alphonsus Baker City in Oregon, which is owned by the Boise-based Saint Alphonsus Health System, also received a “B” grade.

The Lown Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank based in the Boston area. Its mission is to identify and reform overtreatment, undertreatment and mistreatment in American health care. It was founded in 2012 by Harvard professor emeritus and Nobel Prize winner Barnard Lown, M.D., inventor of the defibrillator. The institute issued its first hospital and health system rankings in 2018. The Lown Institute stated it received no funding from any outside source for its health care rankings.