UC San Diego Health System Ranks No. 1

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UC San Diego Health System is once again ranked among the nation’s best in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013-14 “America’s Best Hospitals” issue.  The magazine placed UC San Diego Health System #1 in the San Diego metropolitan area with national rankings in 10 specialties—placing it among the country’s most prestigious institutions.

“Being recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a top hospital both locally and nationally reflects the extraordinary talents and expertise of our doctors, nurses and staff. As the region’s only academic health system, we are devoted to offering an unparalleled quality of care and demonstrably superior clinical results based on a philosophy of care that puts patients first,” said Paul Viviano, CEO, UC San Diego Health System. “Our vision for the community is to create a healthier world – one life at a time – through new science, new medicine and new cures.”

U.S. News & World Report evaluates hospitals in 16 adult specialties. In most specialties, it ranks the nation’s top 50 hospitals and recognizes other high-performing hospitals that provide care at nearly the level of their nationally ranked peers.

For the 2013-14 rankings, 147 of the approximately 5,000 U.S. hospitals evaluated were ranked in at least one specialty  ̶ UC San Diego Health System ranked in 10, including: Cancer (#42 in the country in this specialty), Cardiology & Heart Surgery (#42), Diabetes & Endocrinology (#29), Ear, Nose & Throat (#48), Gastroenterology & GI Surgery (#31), Geriatrics (#20), Nephrology (#17), Neurology & Neurosurgery (#42), Pulmonology (#9) and Urology (#22.) Additionally, it ranked “high-performing” in gynecology, orthopedics, psychiatry and rheumatology. These rankings mark the first time that Gastroenterology & GI Surgery and Neurology & Neurosurgery have been ranked among the specialties.

“A hospital that emerges from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of,” said Avery Comarow, U.S. News Health Rankings Editor. “Only about 15 percent of hospitals are recognized for their high performance as among their region’s best. Just 3 percent of all hospitals earn a national ranking in any specialty.”

U.S. News & World Report publishes the “Best Hospitals” issue to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition, or added risk because of other health problems or age. Measures such as patient survival and safety data, the adequacy of nurse staffing levels and other objective measures largely determine the rankings in most specialties.

In academic medical centers such as UC San Diego Health System, physicians and scientists who teach medicine and conduct groundbreaking research work together to bring the latest diagnostics, treatments, clinical trials and life-saving care to patients. The doctors of UC San Diego Health System are also faculty of the UC San Diego School of Medicine which is ranked 15th in the country in research-intensive programs among 126 medical schools in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools, 2012 Edition.”

In 2016, UC San Diego Health System will open Jacobs Medical Center, the largest new hospital project in southern California. The 10-story, 509,500-square-foot expansion of UC San Diego Health System’s La Jolla campus, will offer three specialty hospitals including a Hospital for Cancer Care, Hospital for Advanced Surgery and a Hospital for Women and Infants. 

UC San Diego Health System was recently named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals for the second time by Truven Health Analytics. In 2012, UC San Diego Medical Center became one of the first Comprehensive Stroke Centers in the nation. UC San Diego Health System has also consistently received an “A” rating from The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score™. The Leapfrog Group uses publicly available data on patient injuries, medical errors and infections to letter grade the safety performance of more than 2,600 hospitals nationwide.

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News & World Report by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News & World Report produced the state and metro rankings. The rankings have been published at health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in print in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals 2014 guidebook, available in bookstores and on newsstands August 27.