U.S. News & World Report Ranks UC San Diego Health Nationally

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UC San Diego Health and its medical and surgical specialties have again been nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report for 2018-19. Each year, U.S. News & World Report analyzes and reviews hospitals performance in a clinical specialties, procedures and conditions for its “Best Hospital” rankings. These rankings distinguish hospitals that provide excellent treatment for health conditions that require the most comprehensive care.

“UC San Diego Health is the only academic medical center in the region, and with our focus on recruiting world-class physician-scientists and accelerating bench-to-bedside treatments, we continue to receive patients from all over the region who are highly complex, acute and in many cases facing mortality,” said Patty Maysent, Chief Executive Officer, UC San Diego Health. “We are proud of the high quality care we provide to the sickest and most complex patients in our region and beyond, and we continue to focus on serving our community by creating more access for patients to our sub-specialized physicians and ground-breaking treatments.”

For 2018-19, U.S. News & World Report ranked 4,500 hospitals. Among these UC San Diego Health ranked in six specialties:

• Cancer (#45) – Anchored by Moores Cancer Center, UC San Diego Health is home to the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the region. Moores Cancer Center is at the forefront in developing promising new therapies and bench-to-bedside innovation and offers the latest surgical technologies, plus more than 300 leading-edge precision and immune therapy trials.
• Cardiology and heart surgery (#40) – The region’s first cardiovascular institute, the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center was opened at UC San Diego Health in 2011. So far this year, Sulpizio physicians and staff have performed 48 ventricular assist device procedures, 54 heart transplants, 900 cardiac surgery cases, 3,700 cardiac catheterization procedures; and handled more than 34,000 outpatient clinic visits across the San Diego region.
• Geriatrics (#36) – A pioneer in the field, UC San Diego Health will open a state-of-the-art physical space dedicated to treating seniors requiring emergency health care. The new space will be located in the Gary and Mary West Emergency Department at UC San Diego Health in La Jolla and will open in 2019. In May, the Gary and Mary West Emergency Department was accredited as California’s first geriatric emergency department by the American College of Emergency Physicians.
• Neurology and neurosurgery (#46) – In 2018, UC San Diego Health added a second Joint Commission-designated Comprehensive Stroke Center, making it the only health care provider in the region with two such centers. Additionally, this specialty is home to a Level 4 epilepsy center; a Lewy Body dementia research center of excellence; two intra-operative imaging suites; and a world-class skull base tumor program.   
• Orthopedics (#49) – UC San Diego Health is the official health care provider of the San Diego Padres, with a medical team led by orthopedic surgeons and sports medicine specialists, who also care for Olympic athletes and several local sports teams, including the San Diego Sea Lions, San Diego Sockers and UC San Diego Tritons.
• Pulmonology (#17) – For the past decade, UC San Diego Health has been consistently ranked in the top 20 for this medical specialty and pioneered the development of pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) and balloon pulmonary angioplasty, procedures for treating chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. Our pulmonologists are experts in the latest diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for all forms of pulmonary disease and are very active in advancing the scientific frontiers of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine.

U.S. News & World Report publishes “Best Hospitals” to help guide patients to hospitals based on a variety of metrics, such as patient survival and safety data. The complete rankings are available at health.usnews.com/best-hospitals

In late 2016, UC San Diego Health opened Jacobs Medical Center, a 10-story, 509,500-square-foot expansion of UC San Diego Health’s La Jolla campus. Jacobs Medical Center offers specialized services and expertise for advanced surgery, cancer care and women and infants care. This year, UC San Diego Health opened the new four-story, 166,420-square-foot Koman Family Outpatient Pavilion on the La Jolla campus, featuring ambulatory surgical care in orthopedics and sports medicine, as well as specialty services in breast oncology and imaging, urology, pain medicine, physical therapy and more.

UC San Diego Health is the largest academic health system in the University of California, comprised of UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest and Jacobs Medical Center, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, Moores Cancer Center, Shiley Eye Institute, Koman Family Outpatient Pavilion and the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, all in La Jolla, as well as primary care and same-day services at clinics throughout Southern California. UC San Diego Health Medical Center is home to the area’s only Regional Burn Center and one of only two Level I trauma centers in the county. The campus is also home to the Owen Clinic, among the nation’s top HIV care programs.