The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., is the best hospital in the United States, according to the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings for 2014-2015.
This is the first time that the Mayo Clinic has taken the top spot in the Best Hospitals Honor Roll. This year’s second-place finisher was Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, followed by Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore – which won last year – the Cleveland Clinic, and UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, U.S. News announced.
For 2014-2015, there were 17 hospitals in the Honor Roll, which is reserved for those institutions that finish at or near the top in 6 or more of the 16 specialties included in the U.S. News rankings. This year, only 144 hospitals did well enough to be nationally ranked in one or more specialties. The 16 ranked specialties are cancer, cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; otolaryngology; gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery; geriatrics; gynecology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; ophthalmology; orthopedics; psychiatry; pulmonology; rehabilitation; rheumatology; and urology.
The ranking process initially comprised 4,743 nonfederal community hospitals, which were rated in the 16 specialties. In the 12 data-driven specialties, scores were based on four elements: reputation with specialists (27.5%), survival (32.5%), patient safety (10%), and other care-related indicators (30%). Four specialties were rated by reputation only. The research organization RTI International conducted the physician survey and produced the Best Hospitals methodology and national rankings under contract with U.S. News.
