WASHINGTON — When the prognosis isn’t good, the nation’s top hospitals are at their best.
In the 26th annual edition of “Best Hospitals” from U.S. News & World Report, Massachusetts General, in Boston, ranks at the top. Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, tied for third.
“The most important criterion by far is patient survival,” says Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News & World Report. “These are complex, medically challenging cases that we’re evaluating.”
As such, the list is about a lot more than bragging rights: It helps patients identify which hospitals excel in their areas of need. “It’s really important to seek out a hospital that treats a lot of patients like you and has a demonstrated record of getting good outcomes,” Harder says.
The Best Hospitals rankings look at 16 specialties. To earn a spot on the Honor Roll, a hospital must rank at or near the top in six or more specialties.
“One theme is that hospitals that do a lot of a particular type of surgery or treat a particular kind of condition tend to be the best at it,” Harder says.
Here’s the list:
The 2015-16 Honor Roll
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
- Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
- (tie) Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
- (tie) UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
- Cleveland Clinic
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
- New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, New York
- UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
- Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
- Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis
- Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
- NYU Langone Medical Center, New York
- UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
- Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina
- Stanford Health-Stanford Hospital, Stanford, California
