DAYTON — Several hospitals in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas offer some of the best emergency care in the nation, according to HealthGrades, a company that publishes health ratings online.

Dayton and Cincinnati are two of the top 10 cities nationwide for the lowest mortality rates for patients admitted through the emergency departments — Cincinnati was named the best U.S. city for emergency care by the same study last year. The top cities for 2012 in order are: Milwaukee, Wis.; Phoenix-Prescott, Ariz.; Cincinnati; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Baltimore, Md.; Traverse City, Mich.; Dayton; Cleveland; Fargo, N.D.; and Detroit, Mich., according to HealthGrades’ Emergency Medicine in American Hospitals study released today.

To come up with the results, HealthGrades said it studied more than seven million Medicare patient records from 2008 to 2010 at nearly 5,000 hospitals for 12 of the most common and life-threatening medical emergencies among that patient population, such as heart attack, stroke, pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The study included only patient records of cases admitted to the hospital from the emergency room for further treatment, according to HealthGrades.