BATH TOWNSHIP — The Surgery Center at Cleveland Clinic Akron General Health and Wellness has been ranked Ohio’s best ambulatory surgery center by Newsweek, the second consecutive year the Bath Township center has taken the top spot in the state, the Akron Beacon Journal reported Nov. 12.
Ambulatory surgery centers are where a growing share of American medicine now happens: outpatient procedures — joint work, digestive procedures, eye and orthopedic surgery — done in specialized facilities rather than traditional hospital operating rooms. Newsweek’s ranking webpage, quoted by the Akron Beacon Journal, puts it this way: “As outpatient surgery continues to expand beyond traditional hospital settings, specialized surgical centers are becoming a vital part of health care delivery. This recognition highlights facilities distinguished by the quality of care they provide across a variety of outpatient procedures.”
The ranking was no small sample. Newsweek analyzed more than 5,000 ambulatory surgery centers nationwide to name its top 750, with scores based on quality metrics, evaluations from peers, patient experience and accreditations, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
The methodology mixes hard measures with reputation. Quality metrics and accreditations speak to outcomes and standards; peer evaluation asks physicians and health care professionals where they would send a patient; and patient experience scores capture what the day actually felt like for the person on the table — the check-in, the communication, the recovery, the bill. A center has to satisfy all three audiences at once to top a state list, and it has to do it again the next year to stay there.
“This recognition belongs to our caregivers,” Dr. Teri Lash-Ritter, president of Cleveland Clinic Akron General and Cleveland Clinic’s South Submarket, said in a news release reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. “Earning the top ranking in Ohio for a second straight year reflects our team’s focus on safety and quality, ensuring that patients receive outstanding surgical care close to where they live.”
Akron-area centers filled the Ohio list beyond the top spot. Cleveland Clinic also placed its Wooster Milltown Specialty and Surgery Center at No. 7 in Ohio, while Summa Health’s Medina Surgery Center ranked No. 14 and the Digestive Health Center in Akron ranked No. 17, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. For Summit and Medina county patients, that means several of the state’s highest-rated outpatient surgery options sit within a short drive.
The repeat win lands inside a bigger Cleveland Clinic footprint in the region’s south. Lash-Ritter’s title — president of Cleveland Clinic Akron General and of the Clinic’s South Submarket — reflects how the system organizes its Akron-area care, with Akron General as the anchor and sites like the Bath Township Health and Wellness campus and the Wooster Milltown center extending it into Summit and Wayne counties. Two of Ohio’s top seven ambulatory surgery centers on Newsweek’s list carry the Cleveland Clinic name, both of them in that southern footprint.
The honors add to a strong run for Akron health care. The Summa Health system whose Medina center made this list is the same system whose 2025 sale created a new community health foundation for Greater Akron, as NewsForce247 reported in its Trailhead Foundation coverage. And in Cleveland, dementia research at the region’s academic medical centers just drew a $21.1 million federal award, covered in NewsForce247’s report on the Cleveland Alzheimer’s center grant.
Newsweek has also been kind to the region’s children’s hospitals. It previously ranked Akron Children’s Hospital the 29th best pediatric hospital in the world, with Cleveland Clinic Children’s at No. 53 and UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland right behind at No. 54, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. What is confirmed: the Bath Township center is Newsweek’s No. 1 in Ohio for a second straight year, judged on quality, peer evaluation, patient experience and accreditation across more than 5,000 centers analyzed. What rankings cannot tell a patient is the personal side — their own surgeon’s recommendation, their insurer’s network, and their procedure’s specifics — which is where individual decisions still get made. The full Newsweek list is the reference point; Akron General’s caregivers now hold the state’s top reference for another year.
What happens next. The ranking stands for the coming year, and the center defends it the way it won it — case by case, in operating rooms a short drive from the neighborhoods it serves. For patients weighing where to have an outpatient procedure, the state list now has a familiar name at the top, in Bath Township, for the second year running.
Photo: Threeblur0, CC BY-SA