America’s Most Socially Responsible Hospitals
Setting the standard by measuring what matters
Hospital financial
assistance & debt
collection policies
A national data set
2025 BLASR
Learn more about our most recent winner of the Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility, Dr. Reshma Ramachandran!
Making hospital
tax breaks work
for communities
An analysis of 20 states
2024 Shkreli Awards
A top ten list of the worst examples of healthcare profiteering and dysfunction each year
Avoiding Overuse: Coronary Stents
How professional inertia harms patients and wastes billions of dollars
America’s Most Racially Inclusive Hospitals
Socially responsible hospitals serve everyone in their communities.
Pay Equity
How much should we pay nonprofit hospital CEOs? What are we rewarding them for — and what metrics could we base their salaries on instead?
About
The Lown Institute is a think tank generating bold ideas for a just and caring system for health. more
FEATURED
Leadership
Vikas Saini
President
Blog
These fifteen hospitals prove that avoiding unnecessary back surgery is possible
These hospitals are bucking the trend of back surgery overuse with rates below 5% for both spinal fusion and vertebroplasty. More
“We are up against an enormous financial juggernaut”: Experts discuss back surgery overuse at Lown event
Watch the video recording and see our key takeaways from the latest Lown Institute event on back surgery overuse. More
Vertebroplasty: The Myth of the Most Effective Medical Intervention
Spine surgeon Dr. Eugene Carragee reviews the evidence for vertebroplasty. More



