Best Hospitals In Massachusetts: U.S. News 2020 Rankings

U.S. News & World Report has released its latest rankings of the best hospitals in the United States, with all rankings coming from data that was derived before the coronavirus pandemic. So the pandemic’s impact on hospitals nationwide is not shown in the latest rankings.

“The pandemic has altered, perhaps permanently, how patients get care and from whom they get it. Amid the disruption, we are steadfastly committed to providing the public with authoritative data for comparing hospital quality,” said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “No hospital’s clinical team came through this unprecedented health crisis unscathed.”

Massachusetts General and Brigham & Women's were the Massachusetts hospitals that made U.S. News' Honor Roll of the top 20.

Eleven hospitals were on the Bay State's best hospitals list. See how they ranked below.

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was once again ranked as the best hospital in the nation.

U.S. News updated rankings for 16 medical specialties: 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 and lung surgery, rehabilitation, rheumatology and urology.

The hospital rankings for 2020-21 include the Honor Roll, top-ranked hospitals in 16 specialty categories, and the top-ranked hospitals by state and metro region.

Twelve of the specialty rankings — which cover categories such as cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology and nephrology — are determined mostly by data; the other four specialties — ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and rheumatology — are determined entirely by expert opinion, U.S. News said.

Honor Roll Hospitals

U.S. News said the hospitals that make the Honor Roll deliver exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care.

“The Honor Roll is geared to identifying hospitals that are both exceptionally good at the service they offer and offer a wide breadth of service,” Harder told Patch last year, explaining that by definition, that means hospitals that are highly ranked across many or most specialties.

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota took the No.1 spot on the 2020-21 Honor Roll, followed by the Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, New York and the UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles rounded out the top five on the Honor Roll.

The remaining hospitals on the Honor Roll are:

• 6. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• 7. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, San Francisco
• 8. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
• 9. NYU Langone Hospitals, New York, N.Y.
• 10. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
• 11. University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor
• 12. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
• 13. Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto, California
• 14. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
• 15. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
• 16. Mayo Clinic-Phoenix
• 17. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
• 18. Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Saint Louis (tie)
• 18. Keck Medical Center of USC, Los Angeles (tie)
• 20. Houston Methodist Hospital

Regional Hospital Rankings

In Massachusetts, the top-ranked hospitals are:

• MGH, ranked in 16 adult specialities
• Brigham & Women's, ranked in 13 adult specialities
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, ranked in 2 adult specialities, high-performing in 5 adult specialties
• Lahey Medical Center, high-performing in 6 adult specialties
• Baystate Medical Center, high-performing in 2 adult specialties
• Tufts Medical Center, high-performing in 1 adult specialty
• UMass Medical Center
• Newton-Wellesley Hospital
• St. Vincent Hospital-Worcester
• Lowell General Hospital
• Cape Cod Hospital

The 16 specialties that hospitals were ranked for 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, psychiatry, pulmonology and lung surgery, rehabilitation, rheumatology and urology.

This year, the U.S. News rankings are accompanied by their “Hospital Heroes” project, a series of profiles highlighting more than 60 health care heroes from across the country.

“Our Hospital Heroes series is a tribute to recognizing individuals at urban and rural hospitals in communities across the country who have gone above and beyond during this unparalleled time in history,” Harder said.

Methodology

U.S. News & World Report said the 2020-21 rankings evaluated nearly every community hospital in America. Only 134 hospitals out of over 4,500 were ranked in one specialty, while 563 hospitals were ranked among the best regional hospitals. A hospital was ranked regionally based on its performance in delivering complex and common care, U.S. News said. The rankings are jointly produced by U.S. News and RTI International, a North Carolina-based research organization. (Read the full U.S. News best hospitals methodology.)