29 FL Hospitals Among Best In U.S. In New Forbes Ranking

Forbes recently unveiled its first-ever Top Hospitals List and Rankings for 2026, including 29 Florida hospitals among the best in the U.S.

For its inaugural report, Forbes evaluated nearly 5,400 general acute care hospitals listed in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Provider Data Catalog based on their performance across 56 reported hospital quality measures.

The 56 selected measures were grouped into four categories with different weights: outcomes (55 percent of the weight), best practices (20 percent), value (15 percent) and patient experience (10 percent).

"Navigating the healthcare system can be daunting," Forbes Senior Editor Rachel Rabkin Peachman said in the report. "Managing referrals, red tape, complicated treatment protocols and increasing costs become all the more overwhelming when people are at their most vulnerable—facing illness, long-term conditions or injuries."

AdventHealth in Daytona Beach was ranked at the top of the list of best hospitals in Florida, with an overall five-star ranking. The hospital has a five-star ranking for outcomes, a three-star ranking for best practices, a two-star ranking for value and a four-star ranking for patient experience.

Other Florida hospitals recognized as the best in the state are:

• AdventHealth Fish Memorial, Orange City - five stars
• AdventHealth Waterman, Tavares - five stars
• AdventHealth Zephyrhills, Zephyrhills - five stars
• Baptist Health West Kendall Baptist Hospital, Miami - five stars
• Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, Vero Beach - five stars
• Lee Memorial Hospital, Fort Myers - five stars
• Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville - five stars
• North Okaloosa Medical Center, Crestview - five stars
• Santa Rosa Medical Center, Milton - five stars
• Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Sarasota Campus - five stars
• AdventHealth, DeLand - four stars
• AdventHealth, New Smyrna Beach - four stars
• AdventHealth, Palm Coast - four stars
• AdventHealth, Ocala - four stars
• AdventHealth, Wesley Chapel - four stars
• Ascension Sacred Heart, Pensacola - four stars
• Ascension St. Vincent's Southside Hospital, Jacksonville - four stars
• Baptist Hospital, Pensacola - four stars
• HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital, Sarasota - four stars
• Holy Cross Health, Ft. Lauderdale - four stars
• Jupiter Medical Center, Jupiter - four stars
• Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, Bradenton - four stars
• Mease Dunedin Hospital, Dunedin - four stars
• Memorial Hospital, Miramar - four stars
• Sarasota Memorial Hospital, North Venice - four stars
• St. Joseph's Hospital, Tampa - four stars
• UF Health Shands Hospital, Gainesville - four stars
• Viera Hospital, Melbourne - four stars

To produce the Forbes Top Hospitals rating system, researchers enlisted healthcare measurement experts, including an advisory panel comprised of clinicians, scientists, health policy researchers and patient advocates. The magazine also partnered with Inovalon, a healthcare data and analytics firm, to calculate the ratings.

The outcomes were statistically adjusted for social drivers of health, such as socioeconomic and access to medical services.

The ratings were then calculated, and out of 4,601 eligible hospitals, 253 hospitals received an overall rating of five stars, and 509 hospitals received an overall rating of four stars.

The stars represented the following percentiles:

1. One star: 1st to 10th percentile
2. Two stars: 11th to 30th percentile
3. Three stars: 31st to 70th percentile
4. Four stars: 71st to 90th percentile
5. Five stars: 91st to 100th percentile

To view the full list of Forbes Top Hospitals, click here.