The administrators of 22 orthopedic hospitals in the United States are smiling a little broader this week. Each of them was named by the Women’s Choice Award program as operating the 22 best orthopedic hospitals in the United States. In alphabetical order, here are the winning hospitals.
Best Orthopedic Hospitals for Women in USA

- Baylor Surgical Hospital at Fort Worth (TX)
- CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern, NC
- Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, NC
- Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, NY
- Florida Hospital Zephyrhills
- Gibson Area Hospital & Health System in Gibson City, IL
- Lafayette (LA) General Medical Center
- Mobile (AL) Infirmary Medical Center
- Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, MA
- Saint Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, NY
- Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, CN
- Saint John’s Medical Center in Jackson, WY
- Saint Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, CA
- Saint Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland, OH
- Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Mattoon, IL
- Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, NY
- Luke’s Hospital in Chesterfield, MO
- Mary Medical Center in Hobart, IN
- Peter’s Hospital in Albany, NY
- Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington, LA
- Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southlake
- Thomas Hospital in Fairhope, AL
Delia Passi, founder of Women’s Choice Awards and former publisher of Working Motherand Working Womanmagazines, described the purpose of the awards this way: “Women are responsible for over 80% of consumer decisions and until now there has never been a trusted endorsement identifying the brands and services that she would recommend. The Women’s Choice Award represents the collective voice of women.”
The awards are based on the most recent publicly available information from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as well as accreditation information. “Our methodology is unique in that it is the only national list that simplifies a woman’s choice when selecting a hospital. It is objective, replicable and uniform. There are no subjective considerations for any of our awards.”
“Our understanding of what matters most to women when selecting a hospital is based on surveys of tens of thousands of women, as well as research conducted in partnership with the Wharton School of Business on what drives the consumer experience for women vs. men. This research led us to understand that we cannot separate clinical performance from patient experience.”

Discussion
This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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