Harlingen Medical Center 1 of only 4 hospitals in Rio Grande Valley named as a 5-Star “Forbes Top Hospital 2026”
HARLINGEN, Feb. 2026 – Harlingen Medical Center, a member of Prime Healthcare, is the only hospital in Cameron County — and one of only four hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley — to be recognized for 5-star care for top patient outcomes by a national magazine, Forbes.
The “Forbes Top Hospital 2026” award is the latest accolade which highlights Harlingen Medical Center’s commitment to advancing healthcare excellence.
Harlingen Medical Center was one of only 14 hospitals in the state to receive the overall 5-star recognition from Forbes, a renowned business publication. Of approximately 2,500 hospitals across the nation that were analyzed by Forbes, 253 hospitals nation-wide earned an overall 5-star score.
In addition, Harlingen Medical Center is one of only two hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley to receive both a 5-star score from Forbes and also an “A” grade for patient safety for the fall of 2025 from the Leapfrog Group (also a national healthcare ratings organization). The only other hospital in the Rio Grande Valley to receive both awards is HMC’s sister hospital in Prime Healthcare, Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco.
In fact, Harlingen Medical Center has received the “A” Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade nine times in a row, from the fall of 2021 through the fall of 2025. This demonstrates HMC’s consistency in delivering the best care possible to patients of the Rio Grande Valley.
“We are honored to receive these awards for quality of care,” said Todd Mann, CEO of Harlingen Medical Center. “This latest recognition from Forbes reflects the dedication of our team and our ongoing commitment to delivering exceptional care to the patients and communities we serve.”
Dr. Sunny Bhatia, President and Corporate Chief Medical Officer of Prime Healthcare, noted, “To be recognized on Forbes’ inaugural Top Hospitals list is both an honor and a meaningful validation of Prime Healthcare’s physician-led model of delivering exceptional clinical care. These distinctions highlight the expertise, compassion, and commitment of our caregivers, who elevate standards of care in every community we serve. I am deeply proud of their dedication and inspired by what we are building together to strengthen community hospitals throughout the nation.”
In evaluating hospitals nation-wide for the awards, Forbes assigned a star rating, from one star to five stars, across four categories to calculate a hospital’s overall score. According to Forbes’ website, this methodology placed the most weight on clinical outcomes (such as rates of mortality, survival, infection and readmissions) so that patient outcomes have the most impact on each hospital’s overall rating.
Forbes added that it selected 56 publicly-reported hospital quality measures for inclusion in the methodology. These measures include hospital metrics such as “surgical site infection after colon surgery,” “30-day readmission after discharge,” “patients who left the emergency department before being seen,” and “inpatients who reported they were given information about recovery,” according to Forbes.
The 56 selected measures were then grouped into four categories: outcomes (consisting of 25 measures), best practices (10 measures), value (7 measures) and patient experience (14 measures). Each category was then assigned a weight, with the weights determining each category’s impact on a hospital’s overall rating. The category weights were: outcomes (55% of the weight), best practices (20%), value (15%) and patient experience (10%).
The 2026 rankings were Forbes’ first, inaugural quality rankings of U.S. general acute care hospitals under the “Forbes Top Hospitals” rankings. On its website, Forbes states that it is launching its Forbes Top Hospitals 2026 list as “a new tool — curated through extensive research and analysis — that is designed to provide consumers with unbiased information to help them choose the best hospitals for their healthcare needs.”
“This inaugural hospital rating system aims to serve the interests of patients and provide healthcare leaders with empirical benchmarks to compare quality performance against their peers,” Forbes added.
For more information on the new “Forbes Top Hospital 2026” awards, and to view a complete list of hospitals across the nation who received the 5-Star recognition, please visit: www.forbes.com/lists/top-hospitals/.
For more information on award-winning medical services in the Rio Grande Valley, please consult your physician and visit www.HarlingenMedicalCenter.com.
About Harlingen Medical Center
Harlingen Medical Center is a nationally recognized and award-winning general acute care hospital. The Level IV Trauma Designated hospital specializes in imaging, bariatrics, cardiovascular, orthopedics, emergency medicine, gastroenterology, gynecology, and wound healing care. Our concept of “Patient Focused Care” puts you, the patient, first! The design, management, staffing, and operation of our hospital are focused on your needs and overall comfort. For more information, please call (956) 365-1000 or visit www.HarlingenMedicalCenter.com.