U.S. News & World Report 'Best Children's Hospitals' Rankings Released

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — U.S. News & World Report today announced the 2012-13 Best Children's Hospitals rankings of America's top pediatric facilities in 10 medical specialties. Boston Children's Hospital and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have been named the top pediatric hospitals on the 2012-13 pediatric honor roll, which recognizes excellence across multiple specialty areas.

The annual rankings are based on data collected and analyzed by RTI International. Using a well-established methodology developed specifically for U.S. News, the data include a survey of pediatric physicians, a direct survey of children's hospitals and supplemental information from other resources.

The data reflect the level and quality of hospital resources in three key aspects of medical care: patient care resources, such as staffing, technology and special services; clinical outcomes, including patient survival and infection rates; and delivery of health care, such as reputation among pediatric specialists and adherence to best practices.

The rankings are based on a hospital's combined score in the three elements and include the top 50 children's centers in 10 specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology.

In the 2012-13 report, 80 hospitals were ranked in at least one specialty and 12 were named to the honor roll, which recognizes hospitals with high scores in at least three specialties.

U.S. News & World Report launched the Best Children's Hospitals ranking in 2008 to identify the best medical centers for pediatric patients. This year, a total of 178 U.S. children's hospitals (mostly freestanding hospitals and large pediatric services amounting to a "hospitals within a hospital") were eligible for the rankings. Most are members of the National Children's Association, although several non-members were added because of known expertise or other factors.

In addition to compiling the rankings, RTI conducts an ongoing evaluation of the study methodology. The 2012-13 edition of Best Children's Hospitals and the full methodology are available at the U.S. News & World Report website. More information on RTI's role is available at www.rti.org/besthospitals.