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Top US hospitals and patient experience: technology guide

By Richard Ellor
26 August 2021
5 min read
Top US hospitals and patient experience: technology guide
Interactive Healthcare ToolHospital Patient Experience & Smart Connectivity Benchmark

Hospital Patient Experience (PX) & Smart Venue Scorecard

Model the operational and HCAHPS impact of high-speed patient WiFi, digital wayfinding, RTLS medical asset tracking, and real-time patient feedback across your healthcare campus.

750 beds
400 beds1800 beds
650,000
250,0001,500,000
2,200 nurses
880 nurses4840 nurses
Configured Healthcare Digital Amenities & Solutions
HCAHPS Satisfaction Uplift
+1.4 Stars
Patient communication & discharge rating index
Nursing Hours Recovered
198,000 hrs/yr
$9,504,000 in clinical productivity
Annual Patient PX Surveys
140,822
Verified first-party feedback via WiFi captive portal
Clinic Delay Cost Recovery
$1,901,250/yr
29,250 late arrivals eliminated
Recommended Smart Hospital Architecture & AP Capacity
Campus AP Count: ~917 Enterprise APs
Annual WiFi Visitors: 782,344
EHR/EMR Compatibility: Epic, Cerner & HL7 / FHIR
Compliance Tier: HIPAA & ISO 27001 Certified

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In July 2021 U.S. News released their annual Honor Roll for the top 20 rated U.S. hospitals, and in this blog, we'll show you the honor roll top 3, what they're ranking for, and their focus toward patient experience.

Annual U.S. hospital honor roll

Each year U.S. News for Health releases its ranks for the top 20 hospitals in the States. In the 32nd annual list, the categories for ranking were split into 15 specialties and 17 procedures and conditions. U.S. News also stated the difficulty to rank at all "Of the nearly 5,000 hospitals analyzed and 30,000 physicians surveyed, only 175 hospitals ranked in at least one of the specialties"

The list of rankings grows every year to account for additional elements that may be important to patients or guidelines.

Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.) - Honor Roll #1

For 6 consecutive years, Mayo Clinic has ranked at the top of the annual honor roll and this year appeared in the top 3 hospitals for 10 categories! Initially started in 1864 by William Morall Mayo, the Mayo Clinic was set up as a non-profit organization that relies on external investment to further medical research.

Patient experience rating 5 out of 5 stars - Mayo Clinic has been a pioneer in patient experience with over 25 years of surveying experience to better understand individuals and their needs.

Awards

Best Hospitals For Cancer - No.3

Best Hospitals For Cardiology & Heart Surgery - No. 2

Best Hospitals For Diabetes & Endocrinology - No.1

Best Hospitals For Gastroenterology & GI Surgery - No.1

Best Hospitals For Geriatrics - No.3

Best Hospitals For Gynecology - No.1

Best Hospitals For Orthopedics - No.2

Best Hospitals For Pulmonology & Lung Surgery - No.1

Best Hospitals For Rheumatology - No.3

Best Hospitals For Urology - No.1

Cleveland Clinic (Ohio) - Honor Roll #2

For over 20 years, the Cleveland Clinic has featured in the top 5 U.S. hospitals honor roll and this year has appeared in the top 10 hospitals for 11 ranking categories!

Lars Svensson, MD, PhD said this about the news, “We are honored to be recognized by U.S. News & World Report, as the nation's top hospital in the country for heart care, for a 27th consecutive year”

Patient experience rating 4 out of 5 stars - Cleveland Clinic was the first major academic medical center to make the patient experience a strategic goal, recruit a Chief Experience Officer, and one of the first to establish an Office of Patient Experience.

Awards

Best Hospitals For Cardiology & Heart Surgery - No.1

Best Hospitals For Gastroenterology & GI Surgery - No.3

Best Hospitals For Geriatrics - No.2

Best Hospitals For Gynecology - No.3

Best Hospitals For Rheumatology - No.2

Best Hospitals For Urology - No.2

UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles) - Honor Roll #3

UCLA Health is made up of 7 healthcare facilities which make it one of the most advanced health systems globally: 

Patient experience rating 4 out of 5 stars - “Our goal is to provide the best patient experience with every patient, every encounter, every time." - UCLA

Awards

Best Hospitals For Diabetes & Endocrinology - No #3

5 facts about UCLA

  1. They have over 2.8 million outpatient clinic visits per year
  2. More than 670,000 unique patients per year
  3. The official health system of the Los Angeles Lakers and UCLA Athletics
  4. 32,000 employees (over 200 UCLA physicians are listed among the Best Doctors in America)
  5. More than 73,000 emergency department visits per year

Remaining hospitals on honors roll list for 2021 - 2022

Click the links to find out more about these top-ranking hospitals!

Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore) - Honor Roll #4

Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston) - Honor Roll #5

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles) - Honor Roll #6

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (New York City) - Honor Roll #7

NYU Langone Hospitals (New York City) - Honor Roll #8

UCSF Medical Center (San Francisco) - Honor Roll #9

Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago) - Honor Roll #10

Michigan Medicine (Ann Arbor) - Honor Roll #11

Stanford Hospital (Calif.) - Honor Roll #12

Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian (Philadelphia) - Honor Roll #13

Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston) - Honor Roll #14

Mayo Clinic (Phoenix) - Honor Roll #15

Houston Methodist Hospital - Honor Roll #16

Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St. Louis) (tie) - Honor Roll #17

Mount Sinai Hospital (New York City) (tie) - Honor Roll #17

Rush University Medical Center (Chicago) - Honor Roll #18

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Nashville, Tenn.) - Honor Roll #19

Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center: Top VA Facility for Patient Experience in USA 2020-21

The Lebanon VA facility scored in the top percent of all VA facilities after collecting insights for the Survey of Healthcare Providers (SHEP) which is an overall rating of the healthcare provider. Combined with inpatients' overall rating of the hospital, Veterans Signals (Vsignals) trust scores, and the All Employee Survey (AES) scores for the Best Places to Work.

The medical center is one of 170 nationwide medical centers and was among the top 10% and a finalist in last year's national rankings. This year the Veteran Trust score has reached a record high level by serving a high-quality patient experience for a nine-county area in South Central Pennsylvania Lebanon VA covers Adams, Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, Schuylkill, and York counties.

Robert W. Callahan, Jr. Lebanon VAMC CEO and Director, said, “I'm honored that Lebanon was recognized as best in experience this year. Our trust, SHEP, and best places to work ratings have consistently been among the best in VHA and reflect upon our exceptional work culture and our progress in becoming a high-reliability organization. Our employees are the driving force in this recognition which is verified by the Veterans of South-Central Pennsylvania who trust VA with their healthcare.”

Frequently asked questions

How do top-ranked US hospitals achieve high patient satisfaction and HCAHPS scores?

Top-performing health systems like Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic combine clinical excellence with digital hospital amenities. They deploy frictionless patient and family WiFi, blue-dot mobile wayfinding to prevent clinic appointment delays, real-time location services (RTLS) for medical equipment tracking, and automated digital micro-surveys that resolve patient grievances before formal CMS HCAHPS mailouts.

How does hospital patient and visitor WiFi impact patient experience ratings?

Reliable high-speed WiFi reduces patient anxiety during hospital stays and long waiting room intervals by keeping patients connected with family, work, and telehealth portals. When paired with a streamlined captive portal, hospitals can deliver personalized digital welcome guides, clinic navigation links, and immediate feedback prompts directly to mobile browsers without app downloads.

What role does indoor digital wayfinding play in reducing clinic appointment delays?

Studies indicate that over 8% of hospital outpatient appointments are delayed due to campus navigation friction. Indoor digital wayfinding provides turn-by-turn routing across multi-building campuses, parking garages, and specialty clinics. This eliminates late arrivals, decreases front-desk congestion, and prevents clinical staff from spending time escorting lost visitors.

How does real-time location services (RTLS) asset tracking improve nursing efficiency?

Clinical nurses spend an estimated 20 to 30 minutes per 12-hour shift locating portable medical equipment such as IV pumps, telemetry monitors, and wheelchairs. Deploying BLE and WiFi RTLS tags provides real-time floor plan visibility, returning thousands of clinical hours to direct patient care and reducing rental equipment expenditure.

How do healthcare facilities ensure HIPAA and patient privacy compliance on guest WiFi?

Enterprise healthcare WiFi separates public patient traffic from clinical EHR and medical IoT VLANs through dedicated SSIDs, 802.1X segmentation, and client isolation. Captive portal data collection uses encrypted TLS transit, stores data in ISO 27001-certified repositories, and adheres to strict HIPAA, GDPR, and regional data protection standards.

What network hardware is required to support smart hospital WiFi and wayfinding?

Smart hospitals deploy medical-grade WiFi 6, 6E, and WiFi 7 access points from vendors such as Cisco Catalyst, Cisco Meraki, Aruba, Juniper Mist, and Extreme Networks. These access points feature integrated Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) arrays that support indoor location positioning, asset tracking beacons, and high-density patient connectivity simultaneously.

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