U.S. News & World Report names top rheumatology hospitals

The U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals annual hospital rankings data, now in its 26th year, has been released.

The top hospitals in rheumatology were named today based on responses from at least 5% of rheumatologists surveyed in 2013, 2014 and 2015 about hospitals regarded as among the best in difficult cases and procedures.

The top-10 hospitals for rheumatology were ranked as follows:

1. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore

2. Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland

3. Hospital for Special Surgery, New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, New York

4. Mayo Clinic, Rochester

5. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston

6. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

7. UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles

8. UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

9. Hospital for Joint Diseases, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York

10. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco

Other specialties ranked include cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; ear, nose and throat; gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; gynecology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; ophthalmology; orthopedics; psychiatry; pulmonology; rehabilitation and urology.

Of those, only four are ranked based on reputation only: ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and rheumatology, because outcomes depend less on survival than in fields such as cancer or neurology. The remaining 12 specialties are ranked based on data rather than peer nomination. Hospitals with high scores in at least six specialties are considered for inclusion in the Honor Roll. According to a press release, military and VA hospitals have not been included due to lack of available data.

“We would include military and VA hospitals but have been unsuccessful in our attempts over many years to persuade the federal government to release performance data,” U.S. News & World Report wrote in a press release.

Across the 12 data-driven specialties, qualification has included any one of the following criteria: status as a teaching hospital, affiliation with a medical school, or the presence of 200 or more active and staffed beds or 100 or more active and staffed beds in addition to the presence of at least four of eight “high-quality care technologies,” including PET/CT scanner and “certain high-precision radiation therapies.”

“Patients deserve high-quality information on hospitals. We strive to provide them with the most comprehensive data available so they can make more informed decisions together with their doctor about where to undergo treatment,” Ben Harder, U.S. News chief of health analysis, said in a press release.

Follow this link to read about the highest-ranked hospitals for overall care.

Data reprinted with permission from U.S. News & World Report.

Reference: health.usnews.com.