Three Kansas City hospitals earned national bragging rights in U.S. News & World Report’s latest hospital rankings.
The University of Kansas Hospital was nationally ranked in 11 adult specialties, Children’s Mercy Hospital was nationally ranked in 10 pediatric specialties, and Saint Luke’s Hospital was nationally ranked in four adult specialties.
The three were the only hospitals in the metro to receive national recognition in the publication’s 27th annual Best Hospitals rankings.
KU Hospital was named the best hospital in Kansas City for the seventh year in a row and best hospital in Kansas for the fifth straight year.
Nationwide, U.S. News assigned its five top honors to the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital and UCLA Medical Center.
The publication ranked thousands of hospitals in 16 specialties, based on such factors as reputation, patient survival, patient safety and nurse staffing. Only 153 hospitals did well enough to be nationally ranked in at least one specialty.
U.S. News also assigned ratings based on nine common procedures and conditions, including various cancer and heart surgeries, hip replacements, knee replacements, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
The publication said it took various risk factors into account, including socioeconomic status, age at admission, sex, transfer status and comorbidities such as diabetes that lead to higher death rates.
Shawnee Mission Medical Center, which last week was the only area hospital to receive the top five-star overall rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was not nationally ranked by U.S. New in any specialty. It did, however, get a “high performing” rating in three procedures/conditions: COPD, colon cancer surgery and heart failure.
Dan Margolies, editor of the Heartland Health Monitor team, is based at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
