U.S. News & World Report on Tuesday released its 35th annual "Best Hospitals" rankings and called out 20 hospitals on its national Honor Roll for demonstrating "exceptional breadth and depth of excellence."
For the 2024–2025 list, U.S. News evaluated around 4,500 hospitals and healthcare facilities included in the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of Hospitals.
U.S. News evaluated facilities across 15 specialties. On this year's list, 160 hospitals were ranked in at least one specialty.
To qualify as one of the top specialty hospitals, hospitals must meet one of the following criteria:
U.S. News ranked three of the 15 specialties — ophthalmology, psychiatry, and rheumatology — based on a survey of experts.
For the other 12 specialties, U.S. News determined the rankings based largely on federal and industry data. The 12 data-driven specialties are:
1. Cancer
2. Cardiology & heart surgery
3. Diabetes & endocrinology
4. Ear, nose, & throat
5. Gastroenterology & GI surgery
6. Geriatrics
7. Obstetrics & gynecology
8. Neurology & neurosurgery
9. Orthopedics
10. Pulmonology & lung surgery
11. Rehabilitation
12. Urology
To achieve a rating in a specific specialty, hospitals had to meet a specialty-specific volume/discharge requirement. Or, if a hospital did not meet the volume/discharge requirement, hospitals had to have received nominations from at least 1% of the specialists responding to the reputational surveys over the past three years.
This year, U.S. News added Medicare Advantage data in the rankings' outcome analysis and outpatient outcomes in more specialty rankings and surgical ratings. It also refined the identification of interhospital transfers and created a single, combined gynecological cancer surgery rating.
According to U.S. News, 2,281 hospitals were eligible for consideration among the 12 data-driven specialties. U.S. News scored eligible facilities based on four factors (note that cardiology & heart surgery, neurology & neurosurgery, obstetrics & gynecology, pulmonology & lung surgery, and rehabilitation had slightly different methodologies, detailed below):
Cardiology, heart & vascular surgery programs, neurology & neurosurgery programs, obstetrics & gynecology programs, and pulmonology & lung surgery programs were also judged on a fifth factor: public transparency.
For these programs, public transparency was weighted at 3% while process/expert opinion was weighted at 12%.
For rehabilitation programs, patient experience and public transparency were not considered. Instead, outcomes were weighted at 30%, structure was weighted at 38%, and process/expert opinion was weighted at 32%.
U.S. News recognized 20 facilities on an "Honor Roll." According to U.S. News, the facilities on the list demonstrate "exceptional breadth and depth of excellence." The honor roll awardees listed in alphabetical order include:
For the full U.S News & World Report "Best Hospitals" rankings across various specialties, click here.
(U.S. News & World Report 2024-2025 Best Hospitals rankings, 7/16; U.S. News & World Report 2024-2025 Best Hospitals methodology, accessed 7/15; U.S. News & World Report press release, 7/16; Henderson, MedPage Today, 7/16)
Inclusion in U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings can establish a hospital or health system’s prominence in their market and nationally. Many health systems seek to improve their place in the U.S. News rankings, with the ultimate goal of earning a spot on the coveted Honor Roll, which includes the 20 top-scoring hospitals in the United States. In our take, we detail six imperatives that top-performing institutions use to drive their positions in the rankings.
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