Health & Fitness

Three MA Children's Hospitals Ranked Among Nation's Best: U.S. News

For the second year, U.S. News provided expanded rankings of hospitals by both state and multi-state regions.

Boston Children's Hospital comes in as number one overall, scoring top marks in orthopedics, neurology, nephrology, and cancer treatment.
Boston Children's Hospital comes in as number one overall, scoring top marks in orthopedics, neurology, nephrology, and cancer treatment. (Rachel Nunes/Patch)

BOSTON — Three pediatric medical centers in Massachusetts are included in U.S. News & World Report's 2022-23 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings released Tuesday.

The rankings highlight the top 50 centers in 10 pediatric specialties: cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery; neonatology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; pulmonology and lung surgery; and urology.

Boston Children's Hospital comes in as number one in the country overall, scoring top marks in orthopedics, neurology, nephrology, and cancer treatment.

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For the second year, U.S. News provided expanded rankings of hospitals by both state and multi-state regions. Every hospital included in the state rankings was ranked in at least two pediatric specialties.

In Massachusetts, the following hospitals were included:

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Boston Children's Hospital
Rank 1st in 10 pediatric specialties:

  • Ranked first in cancer specialty, nephrology, neurology & neurosurgery, orthopedics, and urology.
  • Second in cardiology & heart surgery, diabetes treatment, neonatology, and pulmonary & lung surgery.
  • And third in gastroenterology & GI surgery

MassGeneral Hospital for Children
Rank 2nd in 3 pediatric specialties:

  • Ranked 23rd in diabetes treatment, 32nd in gastroenterology & GI surgery, and 33rd in pulmonology & lung surgery.

Dana-Farber
Ranked in 1 pediatric specialty:

  • Ranked first in cancer treatment.

This year, U.S. News included a measure for equity, diversity, and inclusion in its methodology. It also relied less on expert opinion in most specialties.

Ten hospitals were named to the Honor Roll — a distinction given to pediatric medical centers that "deliver exceptionally high-quality care across multiple specialties," U.S. News said in a news release.

Boston Children's Hospital claimed the top spot on the honor roll for the ninth consecutive year. Additionally, it ranked as the top children’s hospital in Massachusetts, as well as the No. 1 hospital in five of the 10 specialties that U.S. News considered. Here's the honor roll:

  1. Boston Children’s Hospital
  2. Texas Children’s Hospital
  3. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
  4. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  5. Children’s National Hospital
  6. UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
  7. Children’s Hospital Colorado
  8. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
  9. Nationwide Children’s Hospital
  10. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford

Here are the top five children’s hospitals in selected specialties:

Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery

  1. Texas Children’s Hospital
  2. Boston Children’s Hospital
  3. UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
  4. MUSC Children's Heart Network of South Carolina
  5. New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell

Pediatric Cancer

  1. Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
  2. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
  3. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
  4. Texas Children's Hospital
  5. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Neonatology

  1. Children's National Hospital
  2. Boston Children’s Hospital
  3. Texas Children’s Hospital
  4. UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
  5. UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, San Francisco and Oakland

U.S. News gathered clinical data from nearly 200 pediatric medical centers around the country, looking at measures such as patient outcomes, including mortality and infection rates; as well as health equity, including the availability of clinical resources, and compliance with best practices.

Also, more than 100 pediatric specialists and other experts provided input through methodology working groups. The North Carolina-based research and consulting firm RTI International collected and analyzed the data. Read more on the U.S. News’ methodology.

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