Ashley Regional Medical Center Named One of the Nation’s 2026 100 Top Hospitals® by Modern Healthcare and Premier
April 14, 2026
Vernal, UT– April 14, 2026 – Ashley Regional Medical Center today was identified as one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® according to an independent quality analysis conducted by Premier, Inc. and published by Modern Healthcare.
For more than 30 years, Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals® program has used objective, quantitative analysis of publicly available data to identify the top-performing hospitals in the United States. The program is designed to help healthcare leaders pursue higher performance and deliver added value to patients and communities by providing transparent, nonbiased benchmarks and actionable insights.
Hospitals do not apply to participate in the study, and award recipients do not pay to market their honor.
Being named a Top 100 Hospital in the nation for five consecutive years is a testament to what’s possible when a small rural hospital leads with compassion, commitment, and clinical excellence. It shows that our dedication to investing in staff, providers, and education directly leads to stronger outcomes for the patients and communities we serve.
We believe quality care should never depend on where you live. In rural communities, receiving the care you need shouldn't mean long-distance travel, leaving your support system behind, or uprooting your life during a time of crisis. Our commitment is simple: delivering high-quality, compassionate care close to home so patients and families can stay connected, supported, and together when it matters most.
100 Top Hospitals® Program Performance
Based on comparisons between the study’s top performers and peer hospitals, the analysis found that this year’s 100 Top Hospitals® delivered better outcomes while operating more efficiently. If all hospitals performed at the level of this year’s top performers, the impact for Medicare inpatients could include:
• More than 279,000 additional lives saved
• More than 477,000 additional patients’ complication-free
• More than $14.3 billion in inpatient cost savings
• More than 21,700 fewer patients readmitted within 30 days
Additionally, this year’s benchmark hospitals outperformed peer hospitals across all ten performance measures and in every comparison group. Key findings from the study include:
• A 36.8 percent difference in inpatient mortality between benchmark hospitals and peer hospitals nationally
• Small community hospitals showed the largest inpatient mortality difference, with a 49.3 percent improvement compared to peers
• Teaching hospitals demonstrated the largest difference in complications, outperforming peer hospitals by 30 percent
• Fifty-five hospitals were repeat winners from the previous year, reinforcing the role of sustained improvement and system-level performance
“Premier’s 100 Top Hospitals program recognizes healthcare organizations that consistently deliver high-quality care while improving operational and financial performance,” said David Zito, President of Performance Services at Premier. “By highlighting top performers and providing transparent, data-driven insights, this program helps hospitals nationwide identify opportunities to enhance care delivery, strengthen financial sustainability and improve outcomes for the communities they serve.”
About Ashley Regional Medical Center
Ashley Regional Medical Center is a 39-bed acute care Joint Commission Accredited facility located in the heart of Dinosaur Land, in Vernal, Utah.
Ashley Regional Medical Center is currently the only Emergency Room backed by a hospital in Vernal, Utah. As a 39-bed acute care hospital, the Emergency Room at Ashley Regional treats thousands of patients a year and is staffed 24-hours a day with a dedicated emergency room physician. Ashley Regional is a designated Level IV Trauma Center, a designated Stroke Receiving Facility by the Utah State Department of Health, and is Chest Pain Accredited by the American College of Cardiology.
Some of the services available at Ashley Regional Medical Center include, MRI, CT Scan, 3-D mammography, nuclear medicine studies, 4-D ultrasound, Bone Densitometry, chemotherapy, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, sleep lab, cardiac rehabilitation and medical laboratory.
Ashley Regional Medical Center currently has over 30 affiliated physicians. Specialties include family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, radiology, pathology, orthopedics, ENT, general surgery, OB/GYN, and physiatry. At Ashley Regional Medical Center, the medical staff enjoy practicing medicine in a rural setting, with the latest technology at their fingertips, can enjoy a slower pace of life, and work with a great staff of highly qualified nurses and technicians.
Ashley Regional Medical Center serves the population of Uintah (population 37,743), Duchesne (population 19,596), and Daggett (population 992) counties in Utah, and Rio Blanco County in Colorado (population 6,569).