Anne Arundel Medical Center has been ranked among the nation's top 100 hospitals by an Illinois health care data firm.
Compiled annually by the Evanston-based firm Solucient, the list ranks hospitals for their achievement in four areas: patient care, operations, financial performance and community service. For its 12th annual survey, released last week, Solucient examined more than 6,000 hospitals nationwide.
Of them, Anne Arundel Medical Center was the only large Maryland hospital (more than 250 beds) to rank in the top 100.
"We try very hard to do the best we can for the people we serve and to grow," said Martin L. "Chip" Doordan, the hospital's president and chief executive.
"This just reinforces what everybody has worked so hard to do."
Doordan said the ranking recognizes the center's growth from "a good community hospital to a real regional facility."
To compile data on the hospitals, Solucient used its records and information from Medicare journals including data on mortality rates, complications and length of stay.
Founded in 1902 as the Annapolis Emergency Hospital on Franklin Street in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Medical Center has grown from an 11-bed facility into a regional hospital that serves more than 600,000 residents of Anne Arundel County and portions of Calvert, Prince George's, Queen Anne and Talbot counties. A subsidiary of Anne Arundel Health System Inc., the nonprofit hospital has more than 2,000 employees and treats 70,000 patients a year, including more than 17,000 cancer patients.
In 2001, Anne Arundel Medical Center shuttered its downtown building and moved the entire hospital to its Acute Care Pavilion, a $65 million facility off Route 50 near Annapolis.
That same year, the hospital opened its breast cancer center, a comprehensive diagnostic, treatment and education facility. The center is located in the six-story Sajak Pavilion, built with a $1 million donation from longtime Wheel of Fortune game-show host Pat Sajak and his wife, Lesly, who live in Severna Park.
The list ranked hospitals in five categories: major teaching, teaching, large community, medium community and small community.
The only other Maryland hospital on the list is Union Hospital in Elkton.
Anne Arundel Medical Center is not the first area hospital to land on the Top 100 list. In 2001, North Arundel Hospital in Glen Burnie made the list for its critical and intensive care units.
Sun staff writer Childs Walker contributed to this article
