Mt. Sinai Hospital, in New York City, was no. 1 this year in geriatric care, according to rankings by US News & World Report. The Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, followed.
Rounding out the top 10 hospitals in caring for patients older than age 75 were (4) UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, California; (5) NYU Langone Hospitals, in New York City; (6) Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, Maryland; (7) New York–Presbyterian Hospital–Columbia and Cornell, New York City; (8) Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois; (9) UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, California; and (10) Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
Those were followed by (11) Keck Medical Center of USC, Los Angeles; (12) University of Michigan Hospitals–Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan; (13) UC San Diego Health–Jacobs Medical Center, San Diego, California; (14) Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; (15) Stanford Health Care–Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, California; (16) Rush University Medical Center, Chicago; (17) Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania–Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; (18) Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston; (19) Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri; (tied for 19) UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Pittsburgh.
Data for the 2021–2022 edition of the “Best Hospitals” were not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which began after the end of the data collection period.
US News also investigated racial disparities in healthcare and debuted health equity measures alongside each hospital’s rankings. Among other aspects of health equity, the new measures examine whether the patients each hospital treated reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of its community.
Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis, said in a statement, “At roughly four out of five hospitals, we found that the community’s minority residents were underrepresented among patients receiving services such as joint replacement, cancer surgery and common heart procedures. Against this backdrop, however, we found important exceptions ― hospitals that provide care to a disproportionate share of their community’s minority residents.”
US News compared more than 4750 medical centers nationwide in 15 specialties. Of those, 531 were recognized as Best Regional Hospitals on the basis of their strong performance in multiple areas of care.
The top 20 hospitals overall were also named to the Honor Roll.
Mayo Clinic was again no. 1 on the honor roll, a ranking it has held for six years in a row, according to a press release. The Cleveland Clinic ranked no. 2, followed by UCLA Medical Center at no. 3.
In other top specialties, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ranked no. 1 in cancer; the Cleveland Clinic is no. 1 in cardiology and heart surgery; and the Hospital for Special Surgery, in New York City, is no. 1 in orthopedics.
A full list of rankings is available on the website.
In 12 of the 15 specialty areas, including geriatrics, rankings are derived from data sources such as Medicare. In the other three specialties ― ophthalmology, psychiatry and rheumatology ― ranking is determined by expert opinion based on responses from 3 years of surveys of physician specialists who were asked to name the hospitals to which they would likely refer their sickest patients.
This year’s analysis adds seven new procedures and conditions: heart attack, stroke, pneumonia, diabetes, kidney failure, hip fracture and back surgery (spinal fusion).
The expanded list will help patients, in consultation with their physicians, choose their hospital on the basis of the specific type of care they need with consideration of distance to a facility and insurance coverage.
Marcia Frellick is a freelance journalist based in Chicago. She has previously written for the Chicago Tribune and Nurse.com and was an editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and the St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times. Follow her on Twitter at @mfrellick.
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