Appendix B: About the U.S. News Best Hospitals for Clinical Excellence
U.S. News and World Report publishes annual hospital rankings in 16 medical and surgical specialties to offer guidance to patients choosing where to receive their health care. Hospitals that earn a spot on the Honor Roll, the list examined for this paper, rank very highly in six or more specialties. Only academic hospitals, hospitals with a minimum specified number of beds, and/or certain medical technologies available (such as a CT scanner) were eligible to be ranked. Patient volume requirements were stipulated for each specialty. Rankings were then generated based on four criteria: reputation of the hospital amongst randomly surveyed physicians in that specialty (32.5%); patient survival based on the number of Medicare patients who died within 30 days of admission compared to the number "expected to die" given the severity of the illness (32.5%); "care-related factors" such as the supply of nursing staff and advanced medical technology (30%); and patient safety measured using six factors (e.g., bleeding after surgery) (5%). For ophthalmology, psychiatry, rheumatology, and rehabilitation, the ranking was solely based on reputation amongst surveyed physicians in that specialty. [1]