Mayo Clinic retains its status as best US hospital

Mayo Clinic was ranked the No. 1 hospital nationwide and received the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s Honor Roll for the 6th straight year, according to a U.S. News press release.

“We are truly grateful to our extraordinary staff for always putting our patients’ needs first in the exceptional care that they provide,” Gianrico Farrugia, MD, the president and CEO of Mayo Clinic, said in a Mayo press release.

The top 20 institutions that U.S. News recognized for “delivering exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care” for 2021-2022 were:

1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
2. Cleveland Clinic
3. UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
4. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
5. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
6. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
7. New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, N.Y.
8. New York University Langone Hospitals, New York, N.Y.
9. University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco
10. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
11. University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor
12. Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, Calif.
13. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
14. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
15. Mayo Clinic-Phoenix
16. Houston Methodist Hospital
17. Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis and Mount Sinai Hospital, New York (tie)
18. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
19. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.

In addition, the institutions ranked No. 1 on U.S. News and World Report’s specialty list were:

• University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, best hospital for cancer;
• Cleveland Clinic, best hospital for cardiology and heart surgery;
• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., best hospital for diabetes and endocrinology;
• Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, best hospital for ear, nose and throat;
• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., best hospital for gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery;
• Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, best hospital for geriatrics;
• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., best hospital for gynecology;
• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., best hospital for nephrology;
• Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, best hospital for neurology and neurosurgery;
• Bascom Palmer Eye Institute-University of Miami Hospital and Clinics, best hospitals for ophthalmology
• Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, best hospital for orthopedics;
• Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, best hospital for psychiatry;
• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., best hospital for pulmonology and lung cancer surgery;
• Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, best hospital for rehabilitation;
• Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, best hospital for rheumatology; and
• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., best hospital for urology.

The data that were used to calculate the rankings and ratings come from a period before the COVID-19 pandemic; they were not impacted by the pandemic’s effect on hospitals, according to the U.S. News press release.

In an analysis accompanying the rankings, Ben Harder, U.S. News’ managing editor and health and analysis chief, and colleagues reviewed racial disparities in hospital care. According to the authors, federal data showed that at about four out of five U.S. hospitals, “racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented among patients who access many common services.” Harder and colleagues said this finding could stem from issues including decreased access to health care, patient-doctor communication barriers and a lack of patient-doctor trust.

The authors also noted that some hospitals were “notable exceptions” to their findings. These included those that provided health care to patients whose demographic data closely aligned with their local area or offered health-related services to a larger proportion of underrepresented populations than local demographic data suggested lived in close proximity to the hospital.

References:

Harder B, et al. Analysis of racial gaps in hospital care. Accessed July 23, 2021.

Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic ranked No. 1 hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.. Accessed July 23, 2021.

U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News releases 2021-22 best hospitals rankings. Available at: https://health.usnews.com/media/best-hospitals/USNews_Best_Hospitals_2021-22_Rankings_Press_Release. Accessed July 23, 2021.

U.S. News & World Report. Best hospitals by specialty. https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings?src=usn_pr. Accessed July 23, 2021.