U.S. News releases ‘Best Hospitals’ rankings

Washington, DC-U.S. News and World Report has released its “America’s Best Hospitals” rankings for 2007. The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami and the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, top the list for ophthalmology in the first and second positions, respectively, for the fourth consecutive year.

Rounding out the magazine’s ophthalmology list are Wills Eye, Philadelphia, in the number three spot, followed by the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston; Jules Stein Eye Institute, University of California, Los Angeles; University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; Doheny Eye Institute, University of Southern California University Hospital, Los Angeles; University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center; and Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis, MO.

The specialty of ophthalmology was rated solely by reputation, according to the magazine, because mortality data that are part of the rating of some other specialties are irrelevant or unreliable. For each specialty, a survey was sent to a random sample of 200 board-certified clinicians selected from the American Medical Association’s master file. These physicians were asked to name the five hospitals they believe are best in their specialty for difficult cases, not including their own institutions, regardless of location or expense. U.S. News editors said that, overall, the response rate was almost 50%. Ranked hospitals were cited by at least 3% of participating physicians.

Johns Hopkins Hospital topped the magazine’s “honor roll” of 18 institutions with high scores in at least six of the 16 specialties rated. Rounding out the top five were the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center; the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland; and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.