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U.S. News Releases 'Best Hospitals' Rankings

 |  By John Commins  
   July 20, 2011

The annual U.S. News & World Report hospital rankings generate significant marketing power for institutions that earn high honors. Just ask leadership at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

For the 21st straight year, Hopkins has been named the nation's top hospital in U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals 2011-2012, placing first in five specialties and in the top five in 10 other categories.

"No matter how historic or iconic, a building is merely bricks and mortar. It's the dedicated people within that building who make it truly great," Edward D. Miller, MD, dean and CEO of Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Ronald R. Peterson, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in a joint statement.

"It's our caring nurses and staff, the school of medicine's faculty physicians, residents and fellows, and our many community physicians, all of whom dedicate themselves daily to providing the finest care to their patients. You are at the center of our continual search for better treatment, better answers and better discoveries. Our Hospital is exceptional because our people are exceptional."

The other Top Five finishers on the magazine's Honor Roll include at No. 2 Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; No. 3 Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, No. 4 Cleveland Clinic; and No. 5 Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"Our purpose is to heal humankind, one patient at a time," said David Feinberg, MD, president of the UCLA Health System and UCLA associate vice chancellor for health sciences. "While we are pleased with this recognition, what really drives us is ensuring that every patient that comes through our doors gets care that is compassionate, safe, of the highest quality, and delivered with dignity and respect."

The 17 hospitals on the Honor Roll are picked from more than 5,000 hospitals in 94 metropolitan areas, and must rank at or near the top in at least six of the 16 specialties identified by U.S. News.

The latest rankings, issued Tuesday, showcase 720 hospitals, each of which is ranked among the country's top hospitals in at least one medical specialty and/or ranked among the best hospitals in its metro area.

"These are referral centers where other hospitals send their sickest patients," said Avery Comarow, U.S. News Health Rankings Editor. "Hospitals like these are ones you or those close to you should consider when the stakes are high."

The data used to measure the hospitals include death rates, patient safety, and procedure volume. Responses to a national survey, in which physicians were asked to name hospitals they consider best in their specialty for the toughest cases, also were factored in, U.S. News said.

"These are hospitals we call 'high performers.' They are fully capable of giving most patients first-rate care, even if they have serious conditions or need demanding procedures," Comarow said. "Almost every major metro area has at least one of these hospitals."

While popular with consumers and coveted among hospital marketers, the U.S. News rankings have generated questions about the objectivity of measures. In a study published in last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a Cleveland physician said the rankings were based on reputations that did not necessarily correlate with objective quality.

"I was thinking that if we did professional football this way, we would just say let's give the Super Bowl trophy to the Dallas Cowboys without them playing any games because they have a national reputation for being a good team," Ashwini Sehgal, MD, wrote. "I think the main message . . . is that the rankings are not really good measures of quality of care. They are simply measures of national reputation."

John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.

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