Mercy Rural Hospitals Rank Among Chartis' Top 100 Performers for 2026

Six Mercy critical access and community hospitals recognized across three states

ST. LOUIS, March 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Six of Mercy's rural hospitals, including three in Oklahoma, two in Arkansas and one in Missouri, have been included in The Chartis Center for Rural Health's 2026 lists of the 100 top performing rural hospitals across the country.

Rural hospitals deliver essential, often lifesaving care to communities that would otherwise face long travel times, limited access to specialists and significant health disparities.

The Mercy hospitals named to this year's Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals include Mercy Hospital Berryville and Mercy Hospital Paris in Arkansas and Mercy Hospital Kingfisher and Mercy Hospital Watonga in Oklahoma.

Chartis named two other Mercy hospitals to its Top 100 Rural and Community Hospitals list – Mercy Hospital Washington in Missouri and Mercy Hospital Ardmore in Oklahoma. Mercy Washington is being recognized by Chartis for the first time, while the other hospitals previously have been named to Chartis lists. This year's award winners in each category can be found here.

A critical access hospital is a small rural facility designated by Medicare to improve access to care, capped at 25 inpatient beds and required to maintain 24/7 emergency services, while a community hospital provides a broad range of general medical services to the local population. Each hospital on Chartis' Top 100 lists has demonstrated consistently strong patient outcomes, high operational efficiency and resilience in the face of unique geographic and economic challenges.

"The delivery of care within rural communities is more complex today than at any point in recent memory," said Michael Topchik, executive director of The Chartis Center for Rural Health. "This year's Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals and Top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals have emerged as true leaders who are committed to their mission through a powerful combination of resilience, dedication and innovation. We're delighted to recognize this year's winners and celebrate their Top 100 status."

The Chartis awards are based on the results of the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX^®, which recognizes outstanding performance among the nation's rural hospitals. Now in its 16th year, the INDEX is the industry's most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance. Leveraging a methodology that utilizes publicly available data, the INDEX is used nationwide by rural hospitals, health systems with rural affiliates, hospital associations, and state offices of rural health to measure and monitor performance across a variety of areas impacting hospital operations, quality, patient perspective and finance.

Mercy, one of the 15 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized care and one of the nation's largest and highest performing Accountable Care Organizations in quality and cost. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including 55 acute care and specialty (heart, children's, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 1,000 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 5,000 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 50,000 caregivers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In fiscal year 2025 alone, Mercy provided more than half a billion dollars of free care and other community benefits, including traditional charity care and unreimbursed Medicaid. 

The Chartis Center for Rural Health provides comprehensive advisory services and analytics to the health care industry. With unparalleled depth of expertise in strategic planning, performance excellence, health analytics, informatics and technology, digital and emerging technologies, clinical quality and operations and strategic communications, Chartis helps leading academic medical centers, integrated delivery networks, children's hospitals, and health care service organizations achieve transformative results and build a healthier world. For more information, visit www.chartis.com.

SOURCE Mercy