CONTRIBUTED BY EAH

OPELIKA –

Newsweek released its list of The World’s Best Hospitals for 2022 and East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) was one of just three Alabama hospitals to make the list — the other two were UAB and Fayette Medical Center, which is part of the DCH system. The list is derived from the evaluation of hospitals in three key areas: recommendation from peers, patient experience and key performance indicators.

Peer recommendations were taken from results of a survey of doctors and other health care professionals. Patient experience data looked at patient survey topics such as overall satisfaction, likelihood to recommend the hospital to others and satisfaction with quality of care and service. Key performance indicator data reviewed included quality of care and patient safety.

In the announcement, Newsweek’s Global Editor in Chief Nancy Cooper said, “The world’s hospitals have been the front line in medicine’s constantly evolving war against COVID-19 for two years now. According to the experts who helped guide the results of our annual ranking of the World’s Best Hospitals, that has meant learning to adapt to new and existing challenges quickly and improvising on the fly.”

Cooper went on to say, “How do the leading hospitals maintain their top status in the midst of a global pandemic that has turned the medical world upside down? The ability and drive to continually innovate is key — and top talent is at the heart of that.” 

EAMC President and CEO Laura Grill lauded the hospital’s employees and physicians for this accomplishment. “While this recognition mentions East Alabama Medical Center, it’s really a tribute to our employees and physicians throughout the organization. The past two years have brought many challenges, but our East Alabama Health family as a whole met each challenge head on, proving to residents in our region the resolve we have to be provide high-quality, compassionate health care — even in a pandemic. I cannot thank our employees and physicians enough for the sacrifices they’ve made the past two years.”

The top five hospitals in the United States were Mayo Clinic-Rochester, Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, The Johns Hopkins Hospital and UCLA Health — Ronald Reagan Medical Center. In Alabama, UAB Hospital came in at 49, while Fayette Medical Center was #239 and EAMC was #286 (in 2021, EAMC was #331). Of the seven Georgia hospitals listed, six were in the Atlanta area and the other in Dublin, east of Macon.

To see the complete list, visit www.newsweek.com/worlds-best-hospitals-2022/united-states.

ABOUT EAH:

East Alabama Health encompasses East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, EAMC-Lanier in Valley, the Spencer Cancer Center in Opelika, the Auburn Medical Pavilion and a host of other key medical clinic and practices that help provide a continuum of care to patients throughout an 11-county area. EAMC is a 340-bed regional referral hospital, while EAMC-Lanier provides inpatient services as well as a nursing home, an acute rehab unit and an ambulatory surgery center. East Alabama Health employs about 3,500 employees and is the second largest employer in the region, trailing only Auburn University. For more information, visit www.eamc.org.