US News Issues Top Hospitals List With New Health Equity Metrics

For the seventh consecutive year, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, took the top spot in the annual honor roll of best hospitals, published today by US News & World Report.

This year’s rankings, which marks the 33rd edition, showcase several methodology changes, including new ratings for ovarian, prostate, and uterine cancer surgeries that “provide patients…with previously unavailable information to assist them in making a critical health care decision,” a news release from the publication explains.

Additional expanded health equity measures assess “which hospitals provide more care to low-income patients and which have racial disparities in certain surgical outcomes,” said the release. Finally, a new metric called “home time” determines how successfully each hospital helps patients return home.

Mayo Clinic Remains Number One

For the 2022-2023 rankings and ratings, US News compared more than 4500 medical centers across the country in 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions. Of these, 493 were recognized as Best Regional Hospitals as a result of their overall strong performance.

The list was then narrowed to the top 20 hospitals, outlined in the honor roll below, that deliver “exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care.”

Following Mayo Clinic in the annual ranking’s top spot, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles rises from number six to number two this year, and New York City’s NYU Langone Hospitals finish third, up from eighth last year.

Cleveland Clinic in Ohio holds the number four spot, down two from last year, while Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles tie for fifth place. Rounding out the top 10, in order, are: New York-Presbyterian Hospital–Columbia and Cornell, New York City; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago; Stanford Health Care–Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, California.

The following hospitals complete the top 20 in the United States:

11. Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri

12. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, California

13. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania–Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia

14. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

15. Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas

16. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City

17. University of Michigan Health–Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor

18. Mayo Clinic–Phoenix, Arizona

19. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee

20. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

For the specialty rankings, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center remains number one in cancer care, the Cleveland Clinic is number one in cardiology and heart surgery, and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City is number one in orthopedics.

Top Five for Cancer

1. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston

2. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City

3. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

4. Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts

5. UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, California

Top Five for Cardiology and Heart Surgery

1. Cleveland Clinic, Ohio

2. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

3. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California

4. New York-Presbyterian Hospital–Columbia and Cornell, New York City

5. NYU Langone Hospitals, New York City

Top Five for Orthopedics

1. Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City

2. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

3. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California

4. NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, New York City

5. (tie) Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

5. (tie) UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, California

According to the news release, the procedures and conditions ratings are based entirely on objective patient care measures like survival rates, patient experience, home time, and level of nursing care. The Best Hospitals rankings consider a variety of data provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, American Hospital Association, professional organizations, and medical specialists.

The full report is available online.

Steph Weber is a Midwest-based freelance journalist specializing in healthcare and law.

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