US News: Cleveland Clinic Top Heart Hospital Yet Again

For the 17th year in a row, the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH) ranks number 1 among the best hospitals for cardiology and heart surgery, according to US News & World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals,” published online July 11, 2011.

US News determines the cardiology rankings based on an overall score determined primarily by 4 elements: reputation, patient survival, patient safety, and care-related factors such as nursing and patient services. For 2011-2012, the Cleveland Clinic received the maximum US News score of 100, with 75% of responding specialists naming the institution as the best for handling difficult cardiology cases. The Cleveland Clinic also received the highest ratings for patient volume (12,861 Medicare inpatient discharges from 2007-2009), and nurse staffing (2.3 nurses per patient), as well as much better than expected 30-day survival in complex patients (10 on a 10 point scale, indicating the highest survival rate relative to other hospitals).

Of the more than 600 hospitals listed in the US News under Cardiology and Heart Surgery, the top 50 are ranked based on score. All are experienced in treating difficult cases—a hospital is listed only if at least 1,280 inpatients in need of high-level expertise in this specialty were treated there in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Below are the top 10, with the top 6 remaining in the same order as the previous year (table 1).

Table 1. Top 10 Cardiology and Heart Surgery Hospitals for 2011-2012

Rank

Reputation

Survival

1.      Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, OH

75.3%

10

2.      Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN

62.4%

9

3.      Johns Hopkins Hospital
Baltimore, MD

26.4%

10

4.      Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital
Houston, TX

24.1%

10

5.      Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA

23.4%

9

6.      NewYork-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
New York, NY

14.8%

10

7.      Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC

17.8%

9

8.      Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Boston, MA

19.4%

9

9.  Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA

10.9%

10

10.  Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

15.1%

8


Most of the top 10 heart and heart surgery hospitals also appear in the “honor roll” of highest ranked hospitals, though not in the same order. Just 17 of the nearly 5,000 hospitals evaluated for 2011-2012 qualified by achieving high scores in at least 6 specialties. The final order was based on points, with 2 points awarded for ranking at or close to the top in a specialty and 1 point for coming in slightly lower. Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD) held its 2-decade lead (table 2).

Table 2. Top 10 ‘Honor Roll’ Hospitals for 2011-2012

Rank

Points

Specialties

1. Johns Hopkins Hospital
Baltimore, MD

30

15

2. Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA

29

15

3. Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN

28

15

4. Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, OH

26

13

5. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA

25

14

6. NewYork-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
New York, NY

22

12

7. UCSF Medical Center
San Francisco, CA

20

11

8. Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Boston, MA

18

12

9. Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC

18

10

10. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

17

12

 


Source:
US News Staff. Best Hospitals 2011-12: The Honor Roll. US News & World Report. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/best-hospitals/articles/2011/07/18/best-hospitals-2011-12-the-honor-roll. Published July 19, 2011. Accessed July 19, 2011.

 

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