MountainStar Healthcare's division repeats as one of nation's top health systems
The Utah-based MountainStar Healthcare network and its sister locations in Idaho and Alaska, which make up HCA Healthcare’s Mountain Division, were recognized for the fourth straight year as one of the nation’s 15 Top Health Systems®. The Mountain Division is the only network serving Utahns to make the Modern Healthcare list, which is based on an objective quantitative analysis conducted by Premier, Inc.
"Making this prestigious list for four straight years sends such a strong message to the patients and communities we serve," said Evan Ray, president of HCA Healthcare’s Mountain Division. "This should only grow the confidence that people have in our care quality, our award-winning team, and our connectedness as a network. It’s particularly meaningful to me that we’re the only health system on the list operating in Utah, Idaho and Alaska."
The annual study evaluates health system performance across clinical outcomes, operational efficiency and patient experience to identify organizations delivering consistent, balanced and sustainable high performance.
Participation in the study is not application-based. Health systems do not opt in or out and are never asked to pay for inclusion, ensuring an objective and transparent assessment.
"Our goal is to reach more Utahns with our high-quality care, so we are very proud to share with our communities this validation from a trusted, objective source," added Ray.
The Mountain Division is comprised of 11 hospitals and 100 total sites of care across three states, including the MountainStar network that stretches from Logan to Payson. It is one of 15 divisions of HCA Healthcare, a national leader in care delivery that uses insights from 47 million annual patient interactions to enhance the care delivered by local teams.
The eight Utah hospitals that make up the MountainStar network are St. Mark’s Hospital, Ogden Regional Medical Center, Timpanogos Regional Hospital, Lakeview Hospital, Mountain View Hospital, Brigham City Community Hospital and Cache Valley Hospital. The network also features six satellite emergency departments, eight CareNow® urgent care centers, 11 surgery centers, dozens of physician clinics and more.
To develop the 15 Top Health Systems® list, Premier researchers evaluated 336 health systems nationwide using publicly available data. Only three health systems have made the list in each of the last four years, including the Mountain Division.
Compared to peer health systems, this year’s top performers outperformed peer companies across all measured performance indicators included in the study while continuing to deliver high-quality care and operational efficiency.
Key findings from this year’s analysis include:
- 22.3 percent lower inpatient mortality compared to peers.
- Fewer healthcare-associated infections, with a 28.6 percent difference in performance.
- Shorter average length of stay.
- Lower overall episode-of-care costs.
These results demonstrate the ability of top-performing systems to deliver high-quality care while maintaining operational efficiency and alignment across their hospitals.
"Achieving Premier’s 15 Top Health Systems® designation is a meaningful accomplishment that reflects a health system’s commitment to delivering high-quality, patient-centered care," said David Zito, President of Performance Services at Premier. "This recognition highlights the Mountain Division’s focus on improving outcomes, strengthening operations and advancing the overall patient experience."
About the Study
The 15 Top Health Systems® study is based on a balanced scorecard of measures across clinical outcomes, operational performance and patient experience. The analysis uses publicly available data sources, including Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Care Compare datasets.
For 2026, updates to the methodology include adoption of the 30-day hybrid hospital-wide readmission measure, which incorporates both claims-based and electronic health record data, as well as the reintroduction of the Medicare Spend Per Beneficiary measure.
Health systems are categorized by size (large, medium and small) to account for differences in scale and enable fair comparisons.