Lake Charles Memorial Hospital Earns Louisiana's Only 5-Star Rating

Only a handful of Louisiana hospitals make a list of the best hospitals in the nation. The latest list from Forbes names only 1 Louisiana hospital as a top ranked 5 star hospital.

Several states have more than a dozen hospitals earning the coveted 5-star designation for 2026. That ranking means the hospital is among the best of the best.

Did Any Shreveport Hospitals Make the List

There are no hospitals from northwest Louisiana on the list of 4 or 5 star hospitals.

The complete rankings are linked here.

How Did Forbes Rank Louisiana’s Top Hospitals?

The publication says the hospitals were ranked based on these criteria each time:

Outcomes

This looks at how well patients may recover and avoid complications (you know like an infection or readmission to the facility).

Best Practices

This looked at how the hospital’s best practices were used to consistently deliver safe, up-to-date care for patients.

Value

We kind of expected this to be a criteria. They look at the quality of the care patients received and compared with the overall cost.

Patient Experience

Hospitals were ranked based on what people say about the hospital (including reviews of the staff).

In each of those categories, a hospital can receive a 1 to 5 rankings, so it’s safe to say that it’s pretty difficult for an overall rankings to be 5 stars from Forbes. Ready to take a look at which ones made the cut?

Louisiana’s Only 5-Star Hospital is

Lake Charles Memorial Hospital

Overall rating 5 stars

Outcomes 5 stars

Best Practices 4 stars

Value 3 stars

Patient Experience 4 stars