Thirty-seven hospitals in California are among those recognized in new national rankings that compare how well hospitals keep patients alive and prevent complications during treatment for heart disease, joint replacement, stroke and other medical conditions.
The 2027 rankings released Tuesday by Healthgrades identify hospitals with better outcomes in specific areas of care, rather than assigning a single overall ranking to every hospital.
Healthgrades, a website that provides information about doctors and hospitals, evaluated approximately 4,500 hospitals nationwide using data on 31 common medical procedures and conditions. Its annual assessment includes national awards for specialty and outpatient care, along with state rankings in 30 states.
The rankings offer patients a way to compare hospitals before undergoing surgery or seeking treatment for a serious medical condition. They also show that a hospital's performance can vary depending on the type of care a patient needs.
In California, 37 hospitals received recognition for specialty care:
The state rankings identify the top three or five eligible hospitals in each of 19 specialties, including cardiac care, orthopedic surgery, joint replacement, stroke care, pulmonary care and gastrointestinal surgery.
The number of hospitals ranked depends on how many facilities in a state qualify for evaluation in a particular specialty. States with six or fewer eligible hospitals in a specialty are excluded from that ranking.
Patients can review the state rankings and search for hospitals through Healthgrades.
The company also named hospitals to its national Specialty Excellence Awards, which recognize facilities in the top 15 percent of eligible hospitals in their respective specialties. More selective distinctions identify the nation's top 50 or 100 hospitals in certain categories.
The new awards also reflect a shift to outpatient surgery. Hospitals in California earning exemplary ratings include:
According to Healthgrades' analysis, outpatient hip replacement procedures increased 81 percent from 2020 to 2025, while inpatient hip replacements declined 75 percent.
Outpatient knee replacements increased 71 percent during the same period, while inpatient procedures fell 70 percent.
The changes reflect a movement toward performing certain procedures without an overnight hospital stay.
Healthgrades separately recognized hospitals for outpatient orthopedic surgery, joint replacement and prostate care.
Healthgrades based its inpatient analysis on Medicare patient records from 2023 through 2025, examining deaths and complications associated with specific procedures and medical conditions.
The company estimated that 227,229 deaths and 158,138 complications among Medicare patients over those three years could potentially have been avoided if all hospitals evaluated had performed at the level of hospitals receiving its highest five-star ratings.
Those figures are statistical estimates, not documented cases in which different hospital care would necessarily have prevented a death or complication. They also apply to Medicare patients, rather than all hospital patients nationwide.
Healthgrades adjusts its comparisons for patient risk factors, including age and medical conditions, but the rankings are not a guarantee of an individual patient's outcome.
The results may be particularly useful for patients comparing hospitals for a specific procedure. A hospital recognized for heart surgery, for example, is not necessarily among the highest-rated facilities for orthopedic care.
Healthgrades uses its own methodology to determine which hospitals receive recognition. Its analysis emphasizes clinical outcomes, including mortality and complications, and should be considered alongside other factors such as physician recommendations, insurance coverage, access to specialists and individual medical needs.
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