Three Mercy Critical Access Hospitals Ranked Among Top 20 for Quality

Home
Mercy Newsroom
Three Mercy Critical Access Hospitals Ranked Among Top 20 for Quality

Michael Kimball

Cell: 505-385-6278

ST. LOUIS – Out of nearly 1,400 critical access hospitals across America, Mercy patients get their care from some of the very best.

Exterior photo of Mercy Hospital Waldron.

Mercy Hospital Waldron in Arkansas is one of three Mercy facilities ranked among the top 20 critical access hospitals for quality.

The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) named three Mercy hospitals to its annual list of the Top 20 Critical Access Hospitals for Best Practice in Quality. The list ranks hospitals using the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX, which compiles public datasets linked to quality, patient perspectives and more.

“The life’s work of our foundress, Catherine McAuley, was to meet people where they are when they needed help,” said Kat Nelson, Mercy chief quality officer. “That’s what our rural hospitals do for people who live far away from big cities – they meet our neighbors where they are and provide top-quality, high-tech, compassionate care in their own hometowns.”

The three Mercy hospitals on the list are Mercy Hospital Waldron in Arkansas, plus Oklahoma’s Mercy Hospital Logan County and Mercy Hospital Tishomingo.

A critical access hospital is a small rural facility designated by Medicare to improve access to care, capped at 25 inpatient beds and required to maintain 24/7 emergency services. In contrast, a community hospital provides a broad range of general medical services to the local population.

Rural hospitals deliver essential, often lifesaving care to communities that would otherwise face long travel times, limited access to specialists and significant health disparities.

Hospitals on NHRA’s top 20 list for quality scored highly across process-of-care measures relevant to rural settings.

“NRHA is committed to ensuring our members have the best information to manage their hospitals,” said Brock Slabach, NRHA chief operations officer. “We’re pleased to recognize theaccomplishments of these rural hospitals.”

Mercy also has four hospitals on the Chartis list of Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals for 2026: Mercy Hospital Berryville and Mercy Hospital Paris in Arkansas, and Mercy Hospital Kingfisher and Mercy Hospital Watonga in Oklahoma.

Find a Mercy provider near you by using the First Available scheduling tool at mercy.net.

Mercy, one of the 15 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized care and one of the nation’s largest and highest performing Accountable Care Organizations in quality and cost. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including 55 acute care and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 1,000 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 5,000 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 50,000 caregivers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In fiscal year 2025 alone, Mercy provided more than half a billion dollars of free care and other community benefits, including traditional charity care and unreimbursed Medicaid.