Bascom Palmer, Wilmer top U.S. News ophthalmology rankings

Washington, DC-The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami and the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, have been named to the first and second spots, respectively, in the ophthalmology category of U.S. News and World Report’s 2011–2012 list of best hospitals for the eighth consecutive year.

In fact, the publication’s list for ophthalmology has featured the same six institutions in the same top six spots for the past eight years.

The hospital rankings for ophthalmology were based solely on the institutional departments’ reputations among specialists. The 18 hospitals ranked in the ophthalmology category were named as among the best at handling challenging cases and procedures by at least 5% of the ophthalmologists who responded to the publication’s surveys in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Institutions rounding out the top 10 in ophthalmology in 2011-2012 include Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia (third); Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston (fourth); Jules Stein Eye Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center (fifth); University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City (sixth); Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (seventh); New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEE), New York City (eighth); Doheny Eye Institute, University of Southern California University Hospital, Los Angeles (ninth); and University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center (10th).

The 2011-2012 top 10 list includes the same institutions as the 2010-2011 list except for the inclusion this year of the NYEE and the exclusion of the Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic, number 11 in ophthalmology on the new list, had been in the number 10 spot last year. The NYEE, number 8 on this year’s list, was ranked number 13 in ophthalmology last year.