Mercy Hospital Paris Named Arkansas’ Top Critical Access Hospital
Logan County facility only Arkansas hospital to make Chartis’ Critical Access Hospitals Top 100
PARIS, Ark. (March 3, 2025) — There’s only one Arkansas critical access hospital to make Chartis’ list of America’s best: Mercy Hospital Paris.
Mercy earned its spot on the Chartis Critical Access Hospitals Top 100 for 2025 through performance metrics analyzing quality, patient perspectives and more.
Critical access hospitals provide 24-hour emergency care and inpatient beds in communities at least a 35-mile drive away from another hospital. Certification by Medicare allows the hospital to receive cost-based reimbursement, making medical services in smaller communities financially sustainable.
Mercy leaders say these small hospitals serve residents who otherwise would travel long distances for emergency care.
“Having basic emergency and hospital services in town is essential to a smaller community like Paris,” said Juli Stec, Mercy’s vice president of patient services. “However, it’s the caregivers at our hospital who help Paris rank among the nation’s best. They’re dedicated to providing the best possible care and do so with compassion every day.”
Chartis uses its Rural Hospital Performance INDEX to rate critical access. The system uses publicly available datasets to analyze eight pillars of performance, and the top-ranking hospitals make the Top 100 list.
Twenty-seven of the 105 hospitals in Arkansas are critical access hospitals, but only Mercy Hospital Paris made the Top 100 list. Mercy Hospital Watonga in Oklahoma also made the list.
