June 5, 2012 — U.S. News & World Report today announced the results of its comprehensive survey to identify the top children’s hospitals in the country in ten pediatric specialties. Not only did Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego achieve rankings in all ten specialties, the Hospital achieved its highest ranking ever in the survey: #2 in Orthopedics. With 178 children’s hospitals in the United States participating in the survey, the top rankings place Rady Children’s among the nation’s elite.
“At Rady Children’s, we hold ourselves to the highest standard in everything we do – whether it’s providing world-class medical care to the children of our region or discovering cures for childhood diseases,” said Kathleen Sellick, President and CEO of Rady Children’s Hospital. “That’s why these rankings are so gratifying. They show that we are keeping our covenant with San Diego to provide the best and most comprehensive services available.”
U.S. News & World Report’s 2012-13 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings recognize the nation’s top 50 children’s hospitals in 10 pediatric specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology.
The specialties at Rady Children’s ranking in the top 50 are: Orthopedics (#2), Urology (#9), Nephrology (#17), Diabetes & Endocrinology (#20), Pulmonology (#22)*, Neonatology (#21)*, Neurology & Neurosurgery (#27), Cardiology & Heart Surgery (#28), Gastroenterology (#30)*, and Cancer (#37)*.
Rady Children’s rankings increased in eight of 10 specialties when compared to last year’s results, with two specialties ranking in the top 10: Urology and Orthopedics.
“Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego deserves high praise for its accomplishments,” said Health Rankings Editor Avery Comarow. “Rady Children’s has a reservoir of dedication and expertise that helps the sickest kids. Our goal at U.S. News is to identify and call attention to pediatric centers like this one.”
For families of sick children, Best Children’s Hospitals provides unparalleled quality-related information in addition to rankings, including survival rates, adequacy of nurse staffing, procedure volume, and much more. Since their 2007 debut, the rankings have put an increasing emphasis on data that directly reflect hospitals’ performance over the opinions of physicians.
This year, U.S. News surveyed 178 pediatric centers to obtain hard data such as availability of key resources and ability to prevent complications and infections. The hospital survey made up 75 percent of the rankings. A separate reputational survey in which 1,500 pediatric specialists—150 in each specialty—were asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty made up the remaining 25 percent.
The full rankings and methodology are available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/pediatric-rankings. The rankings will also be published in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2013 guidebook, which will be available in August.
* These rankings have been updated due to a U.S. News & World Report error.