Dive Brief:
- U.S. News & World Report released its 11th annual Best Children’s Hospitals rankings on Tuesday, showcasing the top 50 centers for pediatric medical care.
- Mirroring last year’s list, the top three performers are Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Texas Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center round out the top five.
- The list also highlights the top 50 hospitals in each of 10 pediatric specialties.
Dive Insight:
Other designees among the top 10 are Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, UPMC’s Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Children’s National Medical Center. Johns Hopkins bumped Seattle Children’s Hospital for a top 10 honor this year.
Boston Children’s ranked first in eight of 10 specialties: neonatology, cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, gastroenterology and GI surgery, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics and urology. The hospital placed second in diabetes and endocrinology and in pulmonology.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia ranked first in diabetes and endocrinology while Texas Children’s Hospital was first in pulmonology.
To make the Top 50 list, hospitals must perform at the highest level in at least three specialty areas. Researchers at RTI International looked at clinical outcomes, care delivery coordination and efficiency, infection control, best practice compliance and resources, such as access to disease-specific program and how many a hospital employs, and expert opinion among pediatric specialists.