Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore regained the top spot in the annual ranking of U.S. hospitals conducted by U.S. News and World Report after finishing second to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston last year.
Massachusetts General was second this year, with the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.) ranked third, the Cleveland Clinic fourth, and the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles fifth, U.S. News reported.
The number six hospital, Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, made the biggest jump from last year among the top hospitals, moving up from 12th place. Also moving up six places was UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, which went from 13th to 7th. Dropping out of the top 10 this year were Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University (dropping from 6th to 15th) in St. Louis and Duke University Medical Center (from 8th to 12th) in Durham, N.C.
The ranking process initially considered 4,806 nonfederal hospitals, which were rated in 12 data-driven specialties and four reputation-only specialties. In the 12 data-driven specialties, scores were based on four elements: reputation with specialists (32.5%), survival (32.5%), patient safety (5%), and other care-related indicators (30%). The research organization RTI International conducted the physician survey and produced the Best Hospitals methodology and national rankings under contract with U.S. News.
