PIERRE — Avera St. Mary’s Hospital in Pierre and four other Avera hospitals have been named some of the top rural and community hospitals in the country. The Chartis Center for Rural Health evaluates hospitals nationwide on eight areas including in and out patient share ranking, cost, charge, quality, outcomes, patient perspectives and financial stability. Hospital that make the top 100 are top performers in managing risk, achieving higher quality, securing better outcomes, increasing patient satisfaction and operating at a lower cost than other hospitals. 50 indicators are used across the eight pillars to assess hospital performance on market, value and finance based categories. Hospitals named a Top 100 facility have one of the 100 highest scores among all rural and community hospitals across the nation.
