The coronavirus outbreak has put a spotlight on the work done daily by health care workers in hospitals. But as reporting has shown, where you get care matters. Both amid the pandemic and beyond, not all hospitals provide equal care.
That’s why U.S. News & World Report keeps a watchful eye on the best hospitals in the nation. Each year, the publication releases the overall best hospitals in the country, as well as where to get the best care for specific things like cancer or heart surgery.
“With more than 6,000 hospitals across the U.S., many patients face a choice about where they get treated. And which hospital they choose matters,” U.S. News & World Report notes in its new rankings published this week. “The Best Hospitals Honor Roll highlights 20 hospitals that excel across most or all types of care evaluated by U.S. News.”
To earn a spot on this overall list, a hospital received points if it ranked nationally in 16 specialties. The higher it ranked in the specialties, the more consideration it was given. The honor roll list also took into consideration if a hospital is top performing in 10 procedures and conditions.
No hospitals in the Southeast made the top 20 cut on the honor roll list.
However, the list notes that “for most illnesses, patients do not need to go to an Honor Roll hospital, which may require traveling away from home and paying expenses for out-of-network care.”
“All rankings and ratings should be seen as just a starting point for patients who are considering, with input from their doctors, where to seek care,” according to the list. “Individual diagnosis, insurance coverage and personal priorities are important factors in making a personal best choice.”
These are the top 20 rated hospitals in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report:
1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
2. Cleveland Clinic
3. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
4 (tie). New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, New York
4 (tie). UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
6. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
7. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
8. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
9. NYU Langone Hospitals, New York
10. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
11. University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor
12. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
13. Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Stanford, California
14. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
15. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
16. Mayo Clinic-Phoenix
17. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
18 (tie). Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis
18 (tie). Keck Hospital of USC, Los Angeles
20. Houston Methodist Hospital
