Award for best hospital goes to … the Mayo Clinic

For the second consecutive year, the Mayo Clinic was named the top hospital in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

Also for the second consecutive year, the Cleveland Clinic is ranked second, while Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston finished third and fourth – switching their places from last year’s ranking – and UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco is fifth after ranking seventh last year, according to the 2017-2018 Best Hospitals ranking.

The Mayo Clinic is nationally ranked in 15 of the 16 specialties included in the overall process, which started with 4,658 community inpatient hospitals and finished with 152 ranking nationally in at least one specialty and 20 earning Honor Roll status with high rankings in multiple specialties. The specialties used in the ranking process include 12 that are data driven – cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; otolaryngology; gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery; geriatrics; gynecology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; pulmonology; and urology – and four rated by reputation only – ophthalmology; psychiatry; rehabilitation; and rheumatology.

The research organization RTI International conducted the physician survey and produced the Best Hospitals methodology and national rankings under contract with U.S. News. The launch of this year’s edition of Best Hospitals is sponsored by Fidelity Investments.

rfranki@frontlinemedcom.com