The annual U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals rankings, now in their 17th year, offer guidance to parents seeking the best place for their very sick child. The top 50 medical centers are ranked in 10 specialties, including pediatric cancer, pediatric cardiology and heart surgery and pediatric orthopedics.
In the 2023-2024 rankings, 89 hospitals ranked among the best in at least one pediatric medical specialty. Ten of those hospitals earned a place on the U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll by garnering points for being highly ranked in many specialties.
U.S. News: Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll
1. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
2. Boston Children’s Hospital.
3. Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston.
4. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
5. Children’s National Hospital, Washington, D.C.
6. Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio.
7. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
8. UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
9. Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, California.
10. Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
Regional Rankings
To help families identify high-quality pediatric centers close to home, U.S. News also ranked children’s hospitals in each state and in seven multi-state regions. The multi-state regions, and the No. 1 hospital in each region, are:
— Pacific: Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
— Rocky Mountain: Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora.
— Southwest: Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston.
— Southeast: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta; Duke Children’s Hospital and Health Center, Durham; and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville (three-way tie).
— Midwest: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
— Mid-Atlantic: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
— New England: Boston Children’s Hospital.
How U.S. News Produced the Rankings
The 2023-2024 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings were created from data collected through a clinical survey sent to nearly 200 hospitals and a survey sent to thousands of pediatric doctors nationwide. RTI International, a North Carolina-based research and consulting firm that also generates the Best Hospitals rankings, administered both surveys and analyzed the results. More than 100 pediatric medical experts provided input on what information to collect and how to analyze the data.
Whether and how high a hospital was ranked depended on how well it performed in three broad arenas of quality:
— Clinical outcomes, such as maximizing survival following complex surgery, minimizing complications from kidney biopsies and preventing infections in the neonatal intensive care unit.
— Efficient coordination of care as demonstrated, for example, by complying with accepted hand-washing protocols and other best practices, and a demonstrated commitment to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion among patients and hospital staff.
— Providing care-related resources, such as ample nursing staff and outpatient programs tailored to particular conditions.
Each of these three major areas determined about one-third of a hospital’s score in each specialty.
Results from the survey of pediatric specialists contributed up to 10% of a hospital’s score, depending on specialty. Doctors were asked to name up to 10 hospitals they consider best in their specialty for children with serious or difficult medical problems. More than 5,000 physicians responded this year. Their responses were combined with those from similar surveys conducted in 2022 and 2021.
How U.S. News analyzed the data and put it together is fully described in the Best Children’s Hospitals Methodology Report, available as a downloadable PDF.
The Top-Ranked Children’s Hospital in Each Specialty
See complete rankings in all 10 pediatric specialties.
— Cancer: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
— Cardiology & Heart Surgery: Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston.
— Diabetes & Endocrinology: Boston Children’s Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (tie).
— Gastroenterology & GI Surgery: Boston Children’s Hospital.
— Neonatology: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
— Nephrology: Texas Children’s Hospital.
— Neurology & Neurosurgery: Boston Children’s Hospital.
— Orthopedics: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
— Pulmonology & Lung Surgery: Texas Children’s Hospital.
— Urology: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
U.S. News also evaluates hospitals that treat adults, publishing rankings or ratings for 15 adult specialties and procedures and conditions such as hip replacement and heart failure.
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Best Children’s Hospitals 2023-2024 Honor Roll and Overview originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 06/21/23: This story was previously published and has been updated with new information.
