Us Hospitals: Best In The World?

The US is home to many top-ranked hospitals, with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, ranking as the top hospital in the US for 2022-2023. The US News and World Report's 2024-2025 rankings placed the Mayo Clinic at the top in more specialties than any other hospital. The Cleveland Clinic is also routinely regarded as one of the best hospitals in the world for cardiac care. However, the US also faces challenges, such as a doctor shortage and high healthcare costs, which may impact the accessibility and quality of healthcare for some Americans.

Maternity and neonatal care

To address this issue, organisations like U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek have published rankings of the best hospitals for maternity care. These rankings are based on various criteria, including C-section rates, newborn severe complication rates, breast milk feeding rates, birthing-friendly practices, and racial/ethnic disparities. Hospitals that are recognised as the best for maternity care have significantly lower C-section rates and newborn complication rates compared to other hospitals.

For instance, the VCU Medical Center in Virginia has been recognised as ""High Performing" in maternity care by U.S. News & World Report. They have the most advanced neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in the area and a team of certified nurse-midwives who assist with natural, low-intervention births.

Newsweek's rankings of America's Best Maternity Hospitals for 2024 include 404 leading maternity hospitals in the US. Their methodology includes a nationwide online survey of hospital managers and medical professionals, as well as patient surveys addressing the overall patient experience. Hospitals are rated on a scale of 1-10 in areas such as perinatal care, operative obstetrics, patient education, and nurse and midwife staffing.

These rankings provide valuable insights for expectant parents, helping them make informed decisions about where to receive maternity and neonatal care.

Pediatric specialties

The US is home to several top-ranking hospitals for pediatric specialties. The US News & World Report ranks hospitals for excellence in outcomes, program structure, and national reputation across 11 pediatric specialties. The ranking is based on clinical data from pediatric medical centers and surveys of thousands of pediatric specialists.

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, a non-profit organization, is one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the country, managing over a million patient visits annually. It has consistently ranked among the top children's hospitals in the US. The hospital provides care in over 60 pediatric specialties and programs, including the Marcus Autism Center and the Center for Advanced Pediatrics.

Texas Children's Hospital has also been ranked #1 in Texas and among the best children's hospitals in the nation. The hospital has ten specialties ranked in the top ten, including cardiology and heart surgery, nephrology, pulmonology and lung surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, urology, neonatology, cancer, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and GI surgery, and orthopedics.

Other hospitals that have been recognized for their pediatric specialties include Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Texas, which offers care in over 40 pediatric and women's specialties, and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, which specializes in pediatric cancers and bone marrow transplants for leukemia.

Newsweek also publishes a list of America's Best Children's Hospitals, ranking hospitals across eight fields: cardiology and cardiac surgery, endocrinology, gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery, neonatology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology and hematology, pulmonology and thoracic surgery, and orthopedics.

Cardiac care

US News evaluated nearly 800 hospitals and ranked the top 50 for cardiac care. Their ranking considered heart transplants, the implantation of cardiac devices, major chest procedures, and the treatment of cardiovascular disease and other complex conditions. US News also included patient safety, trauma care, and other factors in their scoring. The Cleveland Clinic was ranked as the top hospital for cardiology and heart surgery in 2023-2024. Other hospitals that feature in US News' rankings include:

• Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY
• New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, New York, NY
• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Northwestern Medicine-Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL
• Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
• Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia, PA
• Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD

Newsweek and Statista have also ranked the top cardiac hospitals in the US for 2024. Their ranking was based on a nationwide online survey of healthcare professionals and hospital managers, hospital quality metrics, patient experience surveys, and the voluntary PROMs implementation survey. The top 175 hospitals for cardiac care were ranked, including:

• Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan, NY
• North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, NY
• South Shore University Hospital, Bay Shore, NY
• Staten Island University Hospital, Staten Island, NY
• Peconic Bay Medical Center, Riverhead, NY
• Mather Hospital, Port Jefferson, NY
• Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, NY

The rankings for cardiac care in the US are based on a variety of factors, including patient experience, hospital quality, and medical recommendations. These rankings can help patients find the best cardiac treatment options and facilities.

Clinical excellence

US News & World Report evaluates hospitals based on their performance in various specialties and procedures. Hospitals are awarded points for ranking highly in specialties and for being rated "High Performing" in specific procedures and conditions. The specialties evaluated include cancer, neurology, rheumatology, cardiology, heart and vascular surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, pulmonology and lung surgery, geriatrics, and neurology and neurosurgery.

The report also recognizes hospitals that excel in maternity care, with 414 hospitals rated as high-performing in uncomplicated maternity care. The rankings take into account patient outcomes, hospital processes, and structure measures to determine the quality of maternity care.

In addition to adult care, US News & World Report also ranks children's hospitals. In the 2024-2025 rankings, 88 out of 198 eligible children's hospitals earned a ranking in at least one of the 11 evaluated pediatric specialties, including pediatric cancer, pediatric cardiology and heart surgery, and pediatric orthopedics.

Other hospitals recognized for their clinical excellence in the US include:

• New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY
• NYU Langone Hospitals, New York, NY
• Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ
• Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, NJ
• Chilton Medical Center, Pompton Plains, NJ
• Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, NJ
• Houston Medical Center, Houston, Texas
• Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio

Patient safety

Healthgrades, an organisation that recognises hospitals for patient safety and experience, identified that from 2020 to 2022, American hospitals could have avoided 97,000 patient safety events if they had met the same safety standards as the top 10% of hospitals. These safety events include falls resulting in fractures, collapsed lungs due to procedures or surgeries, pressure sores, and catheter-related bloodstream infections. Healthgrades' Patient Safety Excellence Award in 2024 recognised 444 hospitals, emphasising the importance of patient safety and helping patients make informed choices.

Medicare is also addressing patient safety by linking payment policies to safety performance. Hospitals with safety concerns face reduced reimbursements, with penalties applied when claims are submitted. This approach aims to incentivise hospitals to prioritise patient safety and improve their practices.

However, patient safety issues persist in American hospitals. For example, a study by MedStar Health's National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare and Georgetown University's School of Medicine analysed 1.7 million patient safety events involving health information technology (IT). Troublingly, almost two-thirds of these events had no resolution, highlighting the need for improved strategies and inter-departmental collaboration.

Additionally, surgical errors and healthcare-associated infections continue to impact patient safety. With over 300 million surgical procedures performed globally each year, a high rate of adverse events, particularly pre- and post-surgery, poses significant risks to patients. Healthcare-associated infections lead to prolonged hospital stays, increased antimicrobial resistance, additional financial burdens, and avoidable deaths.

To enhance patient safety, hospitals must focus on several key areas. These include preventing foreign objects from being left behind during procedures, addressing healthcare-associated infections, improving surgical practices, and enhancing inter-departmental collaboration, particularly between IT and biomedical departments. By prioritising patient safety and implementing effective strategies, hospitals can improve patient outcomes and reduce the risk of preventable harm.

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