University Health Care’s gynecologic and cancer care are rated 21st and 40th in the country in U.S. News & World Reports’ 19th annual survey of America’s Best Hospitals. The rankings place University Health Care among the nation’s top providers for the 15th time.
“It is always gratifying to be ranked among the best, and this recognition truly reflects the hard work and dedication of our physicians and staff,” said David Entwistle, chief executive officer of University Hospitals & Clinics. “Our first priority is always to our patients and we continually work to provide them with the best health care through a combination of service, comfort, personal care, and technical excellence.”
The annual rankings look at 16 medical specialties to list the top 50 hospitals in each area. Making the cut was not easy. U.S. News initially evaluated 5,453 hospitals based on three standards: membership in the Council of Teaching Hospitals; affiliation with a medical school; and the availability of advanced services and technology. Hospitals that met one of these three standards were then considered for rankings in a specialty. Only 170 U.S. hospitals made the list.
To be ranked among the top 50 in a specialty, such as gynecology, a hospital had to meet one of two requirements: it must have treated a minimum number of Medicare patients who had specific conditions or underwent certain procedures during a three-year period, or it had to be named among the best by at least one physician in the latest three annual surveys.
Finally, hospitals were rated on three more factors for each specialty: reputation, death rate, and care factors, such as the patient-to-nurse ratio.
University Health Care’s gynecology department and Huntsman Cancer Hospital have worked hard and their rankings in this prestigious survey celebrate their success, according to Entwistle. “They should be proud,” he said.