WASHINGTON, July 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings, today released the 2019-20 Best Hospitals rankings. The new and revised 30th edition provides a multifaceted assessment on nearly every hospital nationwide that is designed to assist patients and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to seek care.

This year, U.S. News updated the methodology in its 12 data-driven specialty rankings, which cover Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Diabetes & Endocrinology, Ear, Nose & Throat, Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology & Lung Surgery, and Urology. Updates include:

• Two additional patient-centered measures in each specialty: patient experience score and a new outcome measure that examines how often patients go directly home from the hospital rather than transitioning to a nursing home or other institutional care setting.
• An enhanced risk-adjustment model that accounts for differences in patient populations so that hospitals that treat sicker patients are not penalized.
• Harmonization of outcome measurement in the specialty rankings with the U.S. News Procedures & Conditions ratings, which debuted in 2015 to evaluate hospitals in nine common services.

More details on this year's methodology changes can be found here.

"In the three decades since U.S. News began evaluating hospitals, we periodically have revamped our measures to enhance the decision support our rankings and ratings provide to patients," said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. "This year we revised the methodology to incorporate new measures of patient-centered care and to enhance how we account for differences in hospitals' patient populations. The new model provides a more comprehensive assessment that is useful to patients, families and their medical professionals."

Spanning 25 adult specialties, procedures and conditions, the 2019-20 rankings evaluated nearly every community hospital in America. This year, only 165 hospitals out of more than 4,500 were nationally ranked in one specialty, while 569 were ranked among the Best Regional Hospitals in a state or metro area based on their performance in delivering complex and common care.

For 2019-20, the Mayo Clinic claimed the No. 1 spot on the Best Hospitals Honor Roll. Massachusetts General Hospital ranked No. 2, followed by Johns Hopkins Hospital at No. 3. The Honor Roll is a distinction awarded to hospitals ranked in the top 20 for delivering exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care.

In the specialty rankings, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ranked No. 1 in cancer, the Cleveland Clinic is No. 1 in cardiology & heart surgery and Hospital for Special Surgery is No. 1 in orthopedics.

The 2019-20 Best Hospitals Honor Roll

1.   Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
2.   Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
3.   Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
4.   Cleveland Clinic
5.   New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, N.Y.
6.   UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
7.   UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
8.   Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
9.   NYU Langone Hospitals, New York, N.Y.
10.  Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
11.  University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor
12.  Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, Calif.
13.  Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
14.  Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
15.  UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Pittsburgh
16.  Keck Hospital of USC, Los Angeles
17.  University of Wisconsin Hospitals, Madison
18.  Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia (tie)
18.  Mayo Clinic-Phoenix (tie)
20.  Houston Methodist Hospital (tie)
20.  Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn. (tie)

Top Five Hospitals in Selected Specialties

Top 5: Cardiology & Heart Surgery
1.      Cleveland Clinic
2.      Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
3.      Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
4.      New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, N.Y.
5.      Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

Top 5: Cancer
1.      University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
2.      Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
3.      Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
4.      Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
5.      Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, Boston

Top 5: Orthopedics
1.      Hospital for Special Surgery, New York
2.      Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
3.      Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
4.      UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
5.      NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, New York

The rankings are produced by U.S. News with RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The data experts from U.S. News and RTI will host a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., on November 19 about the hospital rankings. The panel is part of a full track of sessions dedicated to data, rankings and measurement included in this year's U.S. News Healthcare of Tomorrow summit, scheduled for November 17-19.

The U.S. News Best Hospitals methodologies are based largely on objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and discharge-to-home rates, volume, and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators. For more information, see the FAQ.

The launch of this edition of Best Hospitals is being sponsored by Fidelity Investments, one of the leading providers of retirement solutions for hospitals and health organizations. The rankings will be published in the U.S. News "Best Hospitals 2020" guidebook (ISBN 9781931469937), available for pre-order now from the U.S. News Online Store and for purchase at other bookstores in mid-September.

For the full rankings, visit Best Hospitals and use #BestHospitals on Facebook and Twitter.

About U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is the global leader in quality rankings that empower people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. A digital news and information company focused on Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars and Civic, USNews.com provides consumer advice, rankings and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 40 million people visit USNews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

SOURCE U.S. News & World Report

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