(Sioux Center Health CEO Cory Nelson — Community First Broadcasting Staff Photo)
Sioux Center, Iowa (Sioux County Radio) — Sioux Center Health is one of 12 Iowa hospitals included in Forbes’ first-ever 2026 Top Hospitals by State list. The only other northwest Iowa hospital recognized is Floyd Valley Healthcare in Le Mars.
The state list is a subset of Forbes’ national Top Hospitals evaluation. To qualify, hospitals had to meet the national criteria and receive an overall star rating. Forbes then used star-rating percentiles to select roughly the top 30% of eligible hospitals in each state. Hospitals with one- or two-star overall ratings were excluded, while all five-star hospitals were included. Ties at the cutoff were also added.
The final state list recognizes 781 hospitals nationwide, averaging 15 hospitals per state.
Sioux Center Health CEO Cory Nelson said the recognition reflects the work and dedication of the hospital’s staff, noting that great healthcare begins with great people. He also credited the hospital’s technology, expertise, and community relationships it has built.
How Sioux Center Health Scored
Forbes considered up to 56 healthcare-quality measures, though not all measures were available for every hospital. Sioux Center Health’s profile displayed 23 individual measures.
The hospital earned:
- 3 stars for outcomes
- 4 stars for best practices
- 4 stars for patient experience
- 4 stars on its available value measure, based on Medicare payments for pneumonia cases
Six individual measures received five stars, including:
- influenza vaccination among healthcare personnel
- nurse communication
- patients receiving prompt help
- inpatients rating the hospital a 9 or 10
- room quietness at night
- patients who left the emergency department before being seen
Four-star measures included:
- hospital-wide readmissions
- cesarean births
- severe obstetric complications
- time patients spent in the emergency department
Two patient-experience measures received one star:
- whether staff always explained medications before dispensing them
- whether patients reported rooms and bathrooms were always clean
Several outcome measures received two stars, including:
- 30-day death rate among pneumonia patients
- unplanned hospital days after treatment for heart failure or pneumonia
How Forbes Calculated the Ratings
The ratings are based on quality measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Provider Data Catalog.
Weighting of the overall score:
- 55% patient outcomes
- 20% best practices
- 15% value
- 10% patient experience
Forbes says the outcome measures were adjusted for clinical risk and social drivers of health to allow more even comparisons among hospitals serving different populations
Sioux Center Health’s profile cites CMS quality-measure results published in April 2025, using Medicare claims, chart-abstracted data, and patient surveys.
