The average kid will never get sick enough to see the inside of a hospital room. But "average" means nothing if it's your child who is admitted, and less than nothing if she has a problem that calls for the utmost in medical skill. What do you do if your child has a heart defect, or a disorder that interferes with digestion? Out of all of the roughly 5,000 U.S. hospitals, only about 1 in 30 has deep expertise in caring for children with serious problems. For youngsters who need that quality of care, the Best Children's Hospitals rankings showcase the medical centers that every day see kids who have cancer, cystic fibrosis, defective hearts, and countless other life-threatening or rare conditions beyond the capabilities of most hospitals, even those with sizable pediatric departments.
In this year's Best Children's Hospitals, 76 different hospitals ranked among the top 50 in at least one of 10 specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology. Eleven were named to the Honor Roll for high scores in four or more specialties.
The rankings rely on a reputational survey sent to pediatric specialists and a data survey sent to a handpicked set of hospitals. For the specialist survey, 150 physicians in each specialty were asked to name up to five hospitals they consider best for children with serious or difficult problems in their field, without regard to cost or geography. The last three years of responses were totaled.
Most of the 177 centers that were asked to complete the 95-page survey are freestanding children's hospitals or large, multispecialty pediatric departments of major medical centers, run with their own staffs, ORs, and other facilities as if they were a hospital within a hospital. The rest were surveyed because they were previously ranked or were recommended by trusted sources. One hundred of the hospitals completed the survey.
The 11 Honor Roll hospitals excelled in at least four specialties. They are ordered by points.
| Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Hospital | Points* | Specialties |
| 1 | Children's Hospital Boston | 20 | 10 |
| 1 | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | 20 | 10 |
| 3 | Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center | 16 | 10 |
| 4 | Texas Children's Hospital, Houston | 13 | 9 |
| 5 | Children's Hospital Colorado, Denver | 7 | 6 |
| 5 | Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Baltimore | 7 | 6 |
| 7 | Seattle Children's Hospital | 6 | 5 |
| 8 | Childrens Hospital Los Angeles | 4 | 4 |
| 8 | Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC | 4 | 4 |
| 8 | New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley-Komansky Children's Hospital | 4 | 4 |
| 8 | St. Louis Children's Hospital-Washington University | 4 | 4 |
*1 point per specialty for scoring 1 standard deviation above the mean, 2 points for a score 2 standard deviations above the mean.
Reader Comments Read all comments (14)