The Women's Choice Award on Monday recognized over 300 pediatric hospitals on its list of the "Best Children's Hospitals" in 2022, honoring facilities "for having met the highest standards for pediatric care."

Methodology

To create the list, researchers evaluated self-reported data submitted by pediatric hospitals and awarded points for desirable qualities. According to a press release, only pediatric hospitals with the highest scores were recognized "for having met the highest standards for pediatric care."

For the list, pediatric hospitals submitted self-reported data, which included information across 10 different areas:

• Family-centered care
• Family sleeping and living accommodations
• Dedicated pediatric ED
• Pediatric ICU (PICU)
• Neonatal ICU (NICU)
• Child life specialists
• Use of telehealth technologies
• Participation in pediatric health research
• Joint Commission accreditation
• Pediatric Trauma Center accreditation

To choose the honorees, the Women's Choice Award judged hospitals based on five different criteria:

• Pediatric services
• Technology and family resources
• Board-certified staff
• Nurses and support staff
• Commitment to quality

For each measure, hospitals received between zero and five points—except for NICU, which received five points for a Level IV and two points for a Level 3.

For hospital staffing, facilities received points based on the ratio of beds per board-certified pediatric professional across 12 specialties, which included:

• Anesthesiology
• Radiology
• Orthopedics
• Cardiology
• Endocrinology
• Pulmonology
• Nephrology
• Gastroenterology
• Urology
• Neurology
• Oncology
• Neonatology

Hospitals received between zero and five points for the relative number of beds per physician, with facilities with the least number of average beds per physician scoring the most points.

Researchers also weighted each of the results based on the average number of beds per physician for all self-reporting hospitals. Hospitals could receive up to six additional points for high levels of professional, nursing, and support staff.

Children's hospitals with a dedicated pediatric ED, a PICU, and a rating of 4 or 5 for their ED staffing were eligible to earn the Best Pediatric Emergency Care Award.

Commentary

According to Delia Passi, CEO and founder of the Women's Choice Award and former publisher of Working Woman and Working Mother magazines, "[p]arents and families have an important role to play in caregiving and decision-making in their child's care."

"The best children's hospitals embrace families as an integral part of health care and improving children's outcomes," Passi said. "It is our intent at the Women's Choice Award to identify children's hospitals that mothers and fathers can take their children to with the expectation that they will receive excellent and comprehensive care."

Ultimately, Passi believes the award may help increase awareness about the importance of children's hospitals, noting that these hospitals are not only for the critically ill.

"We found in our studies that 75% percent of women associate children's hospitals with care for seriously ill children and nearly 50% of women are unfamiliar with the full offerings of a children's hospital," said Passi. "Our research also revealed that 1 in 4 moms (25%) do not know which Children's Hospital in their community is the best one."

"Our Best Children's Hospitals award helps raise awareness of the top-quality care offered for all children—not only the critically ill—with specialists, services and technologies designed specifically to meet their unique needs," Passi added.

Click here to see the full list.

(WomenCertified Inc. press release, 10/3; Gleeson, Becker's Hospital Review, 10/4)