U.S. News & World Report Ranks Best Children's Hospitals 2013-14

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report today released its seventh annual Best Children's Hospitals rankings. This year, 87 hospitals that excel in treating the most critically ill children were ranked in at least one of the 10 specialties U.S. News analyzes.

The rankings highlight the top 50 U.S. hospitals in each of these pediatric specialties: cancer, cardiology & heart surgery, diabetes & endocrinology, gastroenterology & GI surgery, neonatology, nephrology, neurology & neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology.

Ten hospitals scored high enough in at least three specialties to earn a spot on the Honor Roll. In order of their rank on the Honor Roll, they are:

1. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
2. Boston Children's Hospital
3. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
4. Texas Children's Hospital, Houston
5. Children's Hospital Los Angeles
6. St. Louis Children's Hospital-Washington University
7. Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora
8. (tie) Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
9. (tie) Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Baltimore
10. Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which was ranked in all 10 specialties, took the #1 spot on the Honor Roll this year after being tied with Boston Children's Hospital for the top spot last year.

U.S. News introduced the Best Children's Hospitals rankings in 2007 to help families of sick children find the best medical care available. Best Children's Hospitals 2013-14 goes well beyond rankings, offering families an exclusive look at quality-related information at the individual hospital level. Survival rates, adequacy of nurse staffing, procedure volume, and much more can be viewed on http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/pediatric-rankings and will be published in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2014 guidebook, available beginning in August.

Each hospital's reputation among doctors was only a small part of what U.S. News factored into its rankings. Three-quarters of each hospital's score was determined through an analysis of patient outcomes and data on the structural resources each hospital has for pediatric care. To gather data, U.S. News used two surveys: a clinical questionnaire sent to 179 pediatric hospitals and, for the reputational assessment, a survey of 150 pediatric specialists and subspecialists in each specialty. The 1,500 physicians were asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty, setting aside location and expense.

Most of the pediatric centers considered for ranking are either freestanding children's hospitals or large, multidisciplinary pediatric departments within a medical center – a "hospital within a hospital" – and are affiliated with a medical school.

For an overview of the 2013-14 results, read http://health.usnews.com/health-news/best-hospitals/articles/2013/06/11/best-childrens-hospitals-2013-14-overview-of-the-rankings-and-honor-roll. U.S. News also published an FAQ on how and why it ranks children's hospitals.

"It's been seven years since U.S. News began using hard data, not merely reputation, to rank the nation's best children's hospitals," says U.S. News Health Rankings Editor Avery Comarow. "Each year, with the input of hard-working groups of medical advisors, we improve our methodology. We are more confident than ever this year that our rankings will help patients and families find the best pediatric care available, if that's what they need."

RTI International, the research organization that generates the Best Hospitals rankings and created the Best Children's Hospitals methodology, produced the 2013-14 rankings and administered the hospital and physician surveys. The hospital survey was designed with the help of 125 medical directors, pediatric specialists, and other experts organized by RTI into working groups.

About U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is a multi-platform publisher of news and analysis, which includes the digital-only U.S. News Weekly magazine, www.usnews.com and www.rankingsandreviews.com. Focusing on Health, Personal Finance, Education, Travel, Cars and Public Service/Opinion, U.S. News has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. U.S. News & World Report's signature franchise includes its News You Can Use® brand of journalism and its "Best" series of consumer guides that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, mutual funds, health plans, and more.

SOURCE U.S. News & World Report