PORTLAND, Ore. — A quick way to assess a hospital’s financial health would be to look at its operating margin.
By that measure, McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield is far and away the healthiest hospital in Oregon.
The for-profit hospital, one of only two in the state, posted an operating margin in 2018 of 18.6%, far above the median of 1.67% among 59 Oregon and southwest Washington acute care hospitals.
We decided to take more factors into account, however, to come up with our ranking of healthiest hospitals in Oregon.
Operating margin in 2018 accounts for a third of the score. Three other financial metrics account for another third:
Finally, four utilization percentages account for the final third:
For that last group of factors, higher is better. An under-utilized hospital may translate to lower health care spending overall, which might be a good thing, but at a certain point, low occupancy may hurt the hospital's bottom line.
The No. 1 ranked hospital on this list was Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria. Click through on the slide show below to see the other 49 hospitals on the list.
SLIDESHOW: Ranking Oregon's healthiest hospitals
