Adventist Health Howard Named Nation's 'Most Socially Responsible' Hospital

66 hospitals nationwide earned the "most socially responsible" designation by the Lown Institute.

Adventist Health Howard Memorial Hospital has been named the nation’s “most socially responsible” among more than 3,600 hospitals rated by the Lown Institute for efforts to improve health equity, value and outcomes.

The Lown Institute Hospitals Index for Social Responsibility, launched in 2020, identifies leading and laggard hospitals nationwide using benchmarks for hospitals to measure how well they serve their patients and communities.  

Adventist Health Howard Memorial was named the top hospital among the 66 hospitals nationwide that earned the “most socially responsible” designation by Lown.

In total, Lown ranks 3,606 hospitals—with less than 2% earning top marks across metrics that include racial inclusivity of patients, employee pay equity, and avoidance of unnecessary and potentially harmful procedures. 

“Citizens put their lives and billions of tax dollars in the hands of America’s hospitals,” said Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute. “We believe communities should have high expectations and the most socially responsible institutions should be lifted up as models for the system.” 

Among the 66 most socially responsible hospitals, Lown Institute analysts identified 15 hospitals that had an extraordinary COVID burden—defined as having 26 or more weeks with at least 10% of inpatient beds filled by COVID-19 patients during the first year of the pandemic. 

“Achieving the trifecta of great outcomes, value, and equity is hard—especially under the pressures of a global pandemic,” Saini said. “Hospitals that met the unprecedented challenges of COVID while staying committed to their social mission should be very, very proud.”

The Lown Institute Hospitals Index measures social responsibility of more than 3,600 hospitals nationwide, evaluating hospitals on 53 metrics across equity, value, and outcomes. Hospitals with “A” grades on each of the three major categories achieve the title of “most socially responsible.”

The Lown Institute used publicly available data from Medicare claims, CMS hospital cost reports, IRS 990 forms, and other sources. COVID burden for March 2020-2021 is reported for each hospital but does not factor into the hospital social responsibility ranking.