PEP Health Unveils 2026 US Hospital Rankings for Patient Experience
Offering an alternative to survey-heavy experience data, PEP Health identified this year's top-performing hospitals using more timely, unsolicited patient feedback
MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 16, 2025 /CNW/ - PEP Health (www.pephealth.ai) has released its 2026 US Hospital Rankings for Patient Experience. Based on tens of millions of real-world patient comments, the rankings provide a transparent and timely view of which hospitals patients rate most highly, and why.
Unlike traditional experience rankings, PEP Health's list is not based on internal metrics or survey data. Instead, it reflects what patients and families are already saying in their own words, across public review sites, forums, and social media, about their care. PEP Health's AI platform structures and analyzes this data to deliver validated, timely, and unbiased insight into how patients experience care at every hospital across the country.
Top 10 Hospitals for Patient Experience – 2026
- St. Francis Medical Center (Bon Secours Mercy Health)
- ECU Health Chowan Hospital (ECU Health)
- Holzer Medical Center – Gallipolis (Holzer Health System)
- CHI St Luke's Health – Lakeside Hospital (CommonSpirit Health)
- Delray Medical Center (Tenet Healthcare)
- Providence Saint John's Health Center (Providence St Joseph Health)
- Mercyhealth Hospital and Trauma Center – Janesville (Mercyhealth)
- White Plains Hospital (Montefiore Health System)
- Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville (Northeast Georgia Health System)
- UVA University Hospital (UVA Health System)
View the full Top 100 list at www.pephealth.ai/2026-us-hospital-rankings-for-patient-experience/
Understanding What Patients Actually Think About Their Care
"Our platform makes it possible to see how patients actually experience care, in real time and in their own words," said Dr. Mark Lomax, CEO of PEP Health. "These hospitals consistently earn high praise for care that feels human, responsive, and trustworthy, and that's exactly what our data is designed to surface."
PEP Health analyzed online patient feedback posted in a one year window between September 2024 and August 2025. To be eligible, hospitals needed:
- A minimum of 365 unsolicited experience comments
- Consistently high scores across seven domains of patient-centered care, from Fast Access to Emotional Support
Where legacy survey systems struggle with relevance and fragmentation, PEP Health's platform offers insights that are accurate, scalable, and deeply aligned with how care is actually delivered. Earlier this year, PEP Health's methodology was validated in a peer-reviewed study published in The Journal of Patient Experience, demonstrating 99 percent accuracy in measuring patient experience and a strong correlation with HCAHPS Summary Star Ratings.
PEP Health also recently launched its Trust Score, the first real-time, validated metric designed to help healthcare leaders understand where and when patient trust is built or lost. Derived from the same stream of unsolicited patient feedback as the PEP Score, the Trust Score adds a new layer of intelligence to help leaders act with greater precision and context.
Experience Intelligence That's Built for Healthcare
As healthcare leaders face increasing pressure to connect patient experience with financial and operational performance, many are reevaluating the kind of data they rely on and whether it can truly drive action. In a market dominated by outdated surveys and static metrics, PEP Health offers a timely, dynamic alternative.
Unlike traditional systems, PEP Health gives organizations the ability to benchmark performance against peers across the country. Because the platform analyzes every US hospital and health system, leaders gain not just internal insight, but a full competitive view of where they stand and where they can improve.
PEP Health remains focused on one priority: delivering clear, validated insights from the patient's point of view. Built specifically for healthcare, the platform helps providers and payers understand how patients experience care across locations, service lines, and populations.
Being named a finalist in the 2025 Fierce Healthcare Innovation Awards reinforces this approach and signals a broader industry shift: better patient experience intelligence is no longer a nice-to-have, it is business-critical.
"Trust, safety, and experience aren't soft metrics. They are leading indicators of performance," said Dr. Mark Lomax, CEO of PEP Health. "And they are increasingly tied to revenue, ratings, and reputation. Our rankings reflect the providers who are getting it right because they're listening."
See Us This Fall
Meet the PEP Health team at:
- HLTH 2025 in Las Vegas (Oct 19–22) – Booth 3253-4 in the UK Pavillion
- NGPX 2025 in California (Nov 17–19)
About PEP Health
PEP Health transforms tens of millions of unsolicited healthcare reviews and comments into validated, real-world insights that help providers and payers act earlier, improve outcomes, and drive performance. Unlike traditional surveys, our platform captures and validates the unfiltered experiences of patients and families, revealing what's continuously happening across populations, locations, and service lines. Providers and payers use PEP Health to detect early risks, measure trust and equity, and guide decisions that protect revenue and improve performance.
Our PEP Score and Trust Score provide predictive insights tied to CMS Star Ratings, HCAHPS, and financial performance. The result is a smarter, more actionable way to understand where experience is breaking down, why it's happening, and how to improve it.
Visit www.pephealth.ai to learn more.
SOURCE PEP Health
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