Lawrence Memorial Hospital, 325 Maine St.

Lawrence Memorial Hospital earned the designation as one of the country’s top 100 hospitals this year in a study by a health care analytics organization.

It’s the fourth straight year LMH has been named in the top 20 medium community hospitals in the nation. Truven Health Analytics studied 950 hospitals in that category and 2,769 hospitals altogether.

LMH is the first hospital in Kansas to receive the classification four times, said Gene Meyer, CEO of LMH.

“It’s exciting; we’re pretty pleased,” said Janice Early, vice president of marketing and communications at LMH. “It’s something really for the community to celebrate. We always feel like we’re part of the community, and we want the community to feel proud of their hospital.”

To select the best hospitals, Truven looked at things such as patient satisfaction, how the hospitals operated and their financial stability.

Those named in the top 100 had lower mortality rates, fewer patient complications, more timely emergency care, low expenses and sent patients home sooner than other hospitals.

“As the center of health care in this community — not to mention one of Lawrence’s largest employers — we know financial health, operational efficiency and high quality patient care must be at the center of everything we do, and every decision we make,” Meyer said in a news release.

The results of this year’s study were announced Feb. 28 in Modern Healthcare magazine.

Prior to 2012 — when LMH started its four-year streak — the hospital had not been named in the top 100, Early said. Truven started the study in 1993.

Early said it was “something we had always aspired to.”

The medium community hospitals category was the study’s biggest. Other categories were: teaching hospitals, major teaching hospitals and small and large community hospitals. The medium category included those with 100 to 249 beds. LMH has 173.

One other Kansas hospital was named in the top 100 this year: Kansas Medical Center in Andover, which was in the small category.