News: U.S. News & World Report releases ‘Best Hospitals’ ranking amidst criticism

U.S. News & World Report has released its annual ‘Best Hospitals’ ranking, according to MedPage Today.

U.S. News examined more than “4,500 hospitals across 15 specialties, and 20 procedures and conditions,” with much of the data coming from CMS, the American Hospital Association, other such professional organizations, and medical specialists. This year, in addition to the typical criteria, these health systems were also evaluated on patient outcomes for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, as well as risk-adjusted mortality rates for MA plans.

According to MedPage Today, only 160 facilities nationwide earned a “Best Hospital” ranking, with only 466 earning recognition as a “Best Regional Hospital.” Only 20 facilities made the U.S. News “Honor Roll.” In years past, the honor roll was delivered via a ranking system; however, this year, U.S. News did something a bit differently—it eliminated the system and simply delivered the names without rank.

"While we continue to value the usefulness of the Honor Roll in identifying broad clinical excellence, we also believe that the current format obscures the fact that all of the Honor Roll hospitals have attained the highest standard of care in the nation," leaders from U.S. News said in an open letter.

The change in ordinal rankings, and the recent lack of rankings for regional hospitals, has prompted criticism from some corners of the clinical community. For instance, NYU’s Langone Health, though featured in the “Honor Roll,” stated that “While we are honored by this accolade, U.S. News no longer publishes numeric rankings for the country’s top-performing hospitals or meaningful rankings in major regional markets, limiting patient’s access to that data.”

Editor’s note: To read the MedPage Today coverage, click here. To read U.S. News’ open letter, click here. To read MedPage Today’s coverage of the ranking’s criticisms, click here.