U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals

U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals
Name	U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals
Formation	1990s
Founder	Mortimer Zuckerman
Type	Ranking
Location	New York City
Parent organization	U.S. News & World Report

Contents

U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals is an annual ranking program published by U.S. News & World Report that evaluates and lists hospitals across the United States. The project produces national and regional lists, specialty rankings, and procedural outcomes used by patients, providers, and institutions such as Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and UCLA Health. Its results have influenced stakeholders including policymakers at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, executives at HCA Healthcare, administrators at Kaiser Permanente, and clinicians at teaching centers like Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Overview

The Best Hospitals rankings synthesize data from hospitals such as Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan), NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, UCSF Medical Center, Stanford Health Care, and Barnes-Jewish Hospital to produce specialty league tables and overall assessments. The project links to outcomes tracked by agencies like Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and leverages peer recognition from physicians affiliated with institutions like University of Pennsylvania Health System and Duke University Hospital. Stakeholders range from patient advocacy groups such as American Cancer Society and American Heart Association to accreditation bodies including The Joint Commission.

The methodology combines clinical outcomes, structural measures, process indicators, and reputation surveys involving physicians from organizations like American College of Surgeons and American Academy of Pediatrics. Quantitative inputs include risk-adjusted mortality and readmission rates often compared to benchmarks from National Institutes of Health datasets, while qualitative inputs derive from anonymous peer nominations from specialists at centers like Mayo Clinic Health System and Cleveland Clinic Foundation. The approach has evolved with statistical techniques from institutions such as Harvard School of Public Health and analytic frameworks used by RAND Corporation and Brookings Institution researchers. The methodology's reliance on administrative data draws on billing and coding systems used across Medicare and private payers like Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Each year the program releases national honor roll lists and specialty rankings including areas such as cancer, cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, and pediatrics, naming leaders like Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Texas Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Regional lists cover metropolitan areas including Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Boston, and Philadelphia, informing consumer choices and referral patterns among physicians from institutions like Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and University of Michigan Hospitals. Annual updates coincide with reporting cycles from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and influence hospital marketing campaigns and board deliberations at systems such as Ascension Health.

The rankings affect hospital reputation, patient volume, philanthropic giving, and employment, with major systems like Sutter Health and Intermountain Healthcare responding to rank changes in strategic plans. Critics from academic centers including researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and commentators in outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post have questioned reliance on reputation surveys, potential gaming, and the limits of administrative data. Studies from University of California, Berkeley and analysts at Kaiser Family Foundation have scrutinized risk adjustment and socio-demographic confounders, while advocacy groups such as PatientsLikeMe and National Patient Safety Foundation have pushed for more patient-reported outcomes and transparency.

Hospitals align quality improvement initiatives, recruitment, and capital investments with criteria used by the rankings, affecting programs at centers including Brigham and Women's Hospital, NYU Langone Health, Emory University Hospital, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Health systems negotiate with insurers such as UnitedHealth Group and regulatory agencies like Food and Drug Administration while citing rankings in communications to donors including foundations like Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The lists also interact with medical education and residency selection at programs accredited by Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and influence referral networks involving multispecialty groups like Providence Health & Services.

Historically, institutions such as Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic have frequently appeared atop specialty lists, while shifts have reflected consolidations involving Tenet Healthcare and geographic expansions by systems like Mercy Health. Trends include greater emphasis on safety metrics after high-profile cases at hospitals spotlighted by ProPublica and policy shifts following reports from Office of Inspector General (United States Department of Health and Human Services). The rankings have adapted to include pediatric centers like Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and specialty programs at institutions such as Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Longitudinal analyses by scholars at Columbia University and Yale School of Medicine track correlations between ranking status and measures like mortality, market share, and research funding from agencies like National Cancer Institute.

Category:Hospital rankings