WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) — From joint replacements to routine screenings like colonoscopies, selecting the right outpatient surgery center can depend on both the procedure and location.
Health care professionals also say choosing a center that prioritizes both safety and specialized care is critical.
In a newly released 2026 report Tuesday from the U.S. News & World Report, Pennsylvania is ranked among the top ten states in the nation for top-rated outpatient care.
U.S. News & World Report’s Chief of Health Analysis, Ben Harder, clarified why these centers often offer advantages over hospitals, and potential cost savings.
“They’re often more accessible to their home. The patient experience can be better because these tend to be focused factories that just do one or two things. And so, they’re really efficient and good at handling that type of patient through that type of care,” said Harder.
“Cost savings to the health care ecosystem as a whole may or may not mean it’s cheaper for the patient. And that a lot depends on the type of insurance the patient has and whether the surgery center and the doctors and nurses at that surgery center are covered by their insurance plan,” said Harder.
Harder explained how U.S. News & World Report evaluates and ranks top surgery centers nationwide, noting that the Scranton, Wilkes-Barre metro area is home to five “high performing” surgery centers.
“We evaluate ambulatory surgery centers in four different areas of specialty care. And there are 17 different procedures that we look at that fall under those four specialties,” said Harder.
“We look at the care that the surgery centers provided to all Medicare patients over a three-year period. We identify the patients who received care in each surgery center. And we have a lot of information about what happened to that patient afterward, as well as what their sort of health status was. We identify similar groups of patients who are treated at different surgery centers, and we track their outcomes,” said Harder.
When patients are seeking a center that best meets their needs, Harder said that safety should remain the top priority.
“The important thing when a patient decides to get a procedure in a surgery center as opposed to a more high-resourced hospital is making sure that that procedure can be done safely and effectively,” said Harder.
“These procedures really can improve the quality of life. What we want to make sure is that they’re done safely and that there isn’t an unexpected rate of complications in these surgery centers. And so, our measures focus primarily on these aspects of safety,” said Harder.
In the 2026 report, Harder noted that, for the first time, the Orthopedics and Spine rankings now include shoulder replacement procedures.
To view the 2026 Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers and to find centers near you, click here.