Scripps Encinitas Ranked No.4 in Region

Scripps Memorial Hospital—Encinitas was ranked fourth in San Diego County by U.S. News & World Report, which released its annual medical center rankings Tuesday.

The magazine also named the hospital No. 34 in the state, and it earned high marks in pediatrics, geriatrics, nephrology and urology. Scripps Memorial Hospital—Encinitas is also in the midst of a major expansion, which includes

UC San Diego Medical Center was ranked as the best hospital in San Diego County. Scripps La Jolla came was ranked second, followed by Scripps Mercy Hospital. Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego and Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa were ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.

San Diego-area hospitals failed to crack the top 20 nationally in rankings for any of the 16 specialties examined in the study of 5,000 medical facilities around the country.

In order to rank the hospitals, the magazine and research partner RTI International surveyed nearly 10,000 specialists and went through data on death rates, patient safety and hospital reputation, among other factors.

The top hospitals overall in the U.S. were, in order: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore; the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; the Cleveland Clinic; and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The U.S. News Best Hospitals 2013 guidebook is scheduled to go on sale next month.

—City News Service contributed to this story