Atlantic, IA—Cass County Health System was recently named one of the country’s top 20 critical access hospitals as determined by the Chartis Center for Rural Health. This elite group of hospitals was selected from the Chartis Center for Rural Health’s 2021 Top 100 Critical Access Hospital list, which was released earlier this year. The determining factors for the top hospitals are based on the results of the Hospital Strength Index and its eight performance measures: inpatient market share, outpatient market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspective, cost, charge, and financial efficiency.

“To be named in the Top 20 out of 1,350 critical access hospitals in America is an amazing accomplishment and reflects the talent and hard work of our staff. Everyone on our team is contributing in every way they can to live our mission to provide a superior experience to our patients, families, and the communities that we are privileged to serve. Our vision is to be the best rural hospital in the country—and we are clearly headed in the right direction. This is one of the highest honors we could receive, and we hope that the community feels as proud as we do,” said CCHS CEO Brett Altman.

The rankings were recently announced by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA), and an awards ceremony will be held during NRHA’s Critical Access Hospital Conference in September in Kansas City, Missouri.