Best Hospitals for Children With Severe Congenital Heart Disease 2023-2024

Total anomalous pulmonary venous return. Hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Truncus arteriosus. Terms like these speak volumes to the parents of children with severe congenital heart defects.

Heart defects occur in about 1 in 100 babies, or about 40,000 U.S. newborns per year. While any such problem can be terrifying, the surgeries required for the most severe defects are particularly risky, and the road to a healthy childhood is especially long.

Some hospitals have more experience than others in treating the most severe forms of congenital heart disease, and those are where many parents turn if their child needs a high-risk operation. Studies show the more experience a hospital and its surgical team have in performing high-risk operations, the better outcomes tend to be.

To help this subset of CHD parents identify a hospital that may be best for their child, U.S. News compiled a list of 33 hospitals that meet the following two criteria.

Each medical center listed:

— Earned a top-50 ranking in the 2023-2024 Best Hospitals for Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery rankings.

— And scored high or very high for the number of high-risk pediatric heart surgeries it has handled, which means it performed at least 150 such operations.

Each hospital’s corresponding ranking among the top 50 Best Hospitals for Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery is also shown in the left-hand column below to provide parents with context.

33 Best Hospitals for Children With Severe Congenital Heart Disease

National Rank Hospital State Complex Case Volume
1 Texas Children’s Hospital Texas 417
2 Duke Children’s Hospital and Health Center North Carolina 251
4 MUSC Children’s Heart Network of South Carolina South Carolina 222
5 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Ohio 171
6 Boston Children’s Hospital Massachusetts 582
7 Cincinnati Children’s and Kentucky Children’s Hospital Joint Heart Program Ohio 302
8 Levine Children’s Hospital North Carolina 152
8 UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 151
11 University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital Michigan 347
12 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Georgia 338
13 Children’s Hospital Los Angeles California 395
15 Children’s Hospital of Alabama at UAB Alabama 284
16 Children’s Hospital Colorado Colorado 236
17 Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Pennsylvania 368
18 Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health Indiana 288
19 Seattle Children’s Hospital Washington 205
20 New York-Presbyterian Children’s Hospital-Columbia and Cornell New York 328
23 Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Illinois 153
25 Mayo Clinic Children’s Minnesota Cardiovascular Collaborative Minnesota 238
27 Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital-University of Utah Utah 241
29 Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital Texas 220
30 Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Tennessee 244
32 Advocate Children’s Heart Institute Illinois 181
33 Nemours Children’s Hospital-Delaware Delaware 199
35 Children’s Medical Center Dallas Texas 223
37 Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health Oklahoma 193
40 UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, San Francisco and Oakland California 296
41 Norton Children’s Hospital Kentucky 203
42 Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford California 353
43 Children’s Mercy Kansas City Missouri 179
44 Phoenix Children’s Hospital Arizona 209
46 Children’s National Hospital Washington, D.C. 157
48 Dell Children’s Medical Center Texas 153

More from U.S. News

Drugs That Can Threaten Heart Health

What Is a Cardiologist?

What to Pack in Your Hospital Bag: A Checklist

Best Hospitals for Children With Severe Congenital Heart Disease 2023-2024 originally appeared on usnews.com

Update 06/21/23: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new ranking results.

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