Northwestern Memorial Among 15 Best Hospitals In The Nation: U.S. News And World Report

CHICAGO, IL — Northwestern Memorial Hospital was ranked among the top 15 best hospitals by U.S. News and World Report, which released its annual rankings for 2017-18 on Tuesday. Another Chicago facility, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, made the magazine's list of top 10 children's hospitals in the country.

The U.S. News list rates more than 4,500 medical centers in the U.S. in 25 specialties, procedures and conditions. The rankings also looked at the best hospitals in every state, and 20 hospitals made it to the honor roll, a distinction given to hospitals that deliver exceptional treatment across multiple specialties. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago — or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, topped the honor roll for the second consecutive year. The hospital was ranked across 15 specialties and ranked in the top five for 13 of the specialties. Northwestern Memorial earned the No. 13 spot on the honor roll and was nationally ranked in 11 out of 16 specialties. The facility was ranked No. 8 on the 2016-17 list.

“Northwestern Medicine’s continued success in the U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings is a reflection of our Patients First mission and our culture of excellence that drives us to not only be Chicago’s premier academic health system, but one of the best health systems in the country,” Dean M. Harrison, president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, said in a statement Tuesday. “I applaud and congratulate our exceptional physicians, nurses and staff who provide world-class compassionate care to our patients each and every day. Without their talents and dedication, this accolade would not be possible.”

Lurie's Children's Hospital shared the No. 7 ranking with Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, on the U.S. News honor roll of best children's hospitals in the country. In its 11th year, the 2017-18 honor roll rated the top 50 medical centers in 10 specialties, including pediatric cardiology and heart surgery; pediatric diabetes and endocrinology; and pediatric orthopedics.

U.S. News ranked 152 hospitals nationally in at least one specialty, and 535 hospitals were recognized as best regional hospitals for those seeking care close to home.

The methodology used by U.S. News is based largely on objective measures with more than 70 percent of the rankings relying on such data. The rankings also took into account survey answers from more than 125,000 physicians across the country about reputation. U.S. News also looked at five years of Medicare data and the number of patients treated in hospitals. The methodology was also updated to avoid penalizing hospitals for treating low-income patients or for accepting high-risk cases transferred from other hospitals. For the best regional hospitals, procedures and conditions rankings were emphasized more than specialty rankings.

The hospitals on U.S. News’ honor roll include:

1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
2. Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland
3. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
4. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
5. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
6. University of Michigan Hospital and Health Centers, Ann Arbor
7. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
8. New-York Presbyterian Hospital, New York
9. Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Stanford, California
10. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
11. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
12. Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri
13. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
14. UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Pittsburgh
15. University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora
16. Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Philadelphia
17. Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina
18. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
19. NYU Langone Medical Center, New York
20. Mayo Clinic Phoenix, Phoenix

The specialties included in the rankings are:

• Cancer
• Cardiology and Heart Surgery
• Diabetes and Endocrinology
• Ear, Nose and Throat
• Gastroenterology and GI Surgery
• Geriatrics
• Gynecology
• Nephrology
• Neurology and Neurosurgery
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedics
• Pulmonology
• Psychiatry
• Rehabilitation
• Rheumatology
• Urology

The procedures and conditions included in the rankings are:

• COPD
• Heart Bypass Surgery
• Heart Failure
• Hip Replacement
• Knee Replacement
• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair
• Aortic Valve Surgery
• Colon Cancer Surgery
• Lung Cancer Surgery

Patch Editor Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this article.

Image via Northwestern Memorial Hospital

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