Three Iowa hospitals are on a list of top care providers in the nation — a list that’s so exclusive, there are 20 states without a single hospital on it. Iowa Hospital Association’s Scott McIntyre says the data comes from Solucient, an “information products” firm that consults with hospitals, health-isurance companies and pharmaceutical firms. Solucient has done this study the past 12 years, looking at factors associated with hospital quality and ranking them by size, from the largest teaching hospitals to smalltown hospitals, many of which are here in Iowa. The list of the 100 “best” hospitals in the U.S. includes Iowa health providers in LeMars, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Fort Madison, Mason City and Decorah. McIntyre says they looked at several factors relating to quality of care, the efficiency of the hospital, how well they handle their finances, and how well they provide community services. He says there’s a big change in this year’s survey. A good portion of the hospitals were from the Midwest and upper midwest, in fact he calls them “over-represented” in the top-ranked hospitals, and says that shows that “quality has regional roots.” There’s another interesting pattern in the list of Iowa’s top-ranked hospitals. The 6 in the top-100 were geographically scattered around the state and are also varied in their size — McIntyre says of the five categories of hospitals listed, Iowa has one in four of those categories. He says that shows Iowa in a good light, and is a sign of a “culture of quality” in the whole state. The study includes profits and expenses as well as death rates, length of a patient’s stay, and for the first time a category considering patient safety. McYntire says that’s one reason Iowa scored so well in the rankings. The “patient safety factor” shook things up, he says, and is why “Midwestern hospitals exploded all over the list.” He points out that up till now Florida hospitals dominated the top rankings, but this year they all but disappeared from the list. To go directly to the survey, visit www.100tophospitals.com