Lawrence Memorial Hospital has been ranked No. 14 in the country among community hospitals that provide heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia care, a new study has found.

The study by Colorado-based Total Benchmark Solution is based on data that hospitals submit to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The data details how often the hospital follows recommended procedures for treating certain types of conditions.

“I try to think of it in terms of whether we are doing the right things to the right people at the right time,” said Gene Meyer, president and chief executive of LMH. “The fact that we have scored so high, I think, is a good indication of the quality of care that we provide.”

This is the second year that the hospital has made the center’s Top 100 list, but this is the first year the group has attached a specific ranking to individual hospitals. The ranking places Lawrence at the top of the list among community hospitals within a 100-mile radius of the city.

Two other hospitals in the area ranked in the top 100. They were the Saint Joseph Health Center in Kansas City, Mo., and Saint Luke’s South Hospital in Overland Park. Several others ranked outside the top 100 but in the top 25th percentile of the more than 2,000 hospitals that submitted data. Those included the Kansas University Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., Shawnee Mission Medical Center, the St. Francis Health Center in Topeka, and the Olathe Medical Center.

The report measured how often hospitals undertook recommended procedures, such as dispensing aspirin to patients who come in with symptoms of a heart attack, giving comprehensive discharge instructions to patients with heart conditions and prescribing appropriate antibiotics to pneumonia patients.

Attempts to reach representatives with Total Benchmark Solution, a private company that compiles research for hospitals, were unsuccessful Monday.

The report did not rank LMH against all hospitals in the country. It ranked LMH only against other “acute care” hospitals that offer similar services.

Meyer said the rankings have the potential to provide the hospital a financial boost in addition to being a good measurement of patient care. Meyer said Medicare and Medicaid are in the process of implementing a “pay for performance” system. The amount of money hospitals are reimbursed for certain procedures will be based on how often they meet the recommended guidelines.

Meyer said the federal government also is promoting Web sites – such as www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov – that allow consumers to compare rankings of various hospitals, which may become a factor in where patients choose to receive treatment.

“We’re definitely in a consumer-driven environment these days,” Meyer said.