Some Americans are fortunate enough to live down the street from a world-class hospital. For them, where to go for highly skilled care is clear.
For most of us, though, finding a hospital that offers both top-notch care and local convenience has long been a challenge. Healthcare consumers have limited information about how the hospitals near them stack up. Ironically, their choice can be toughest where options are most plentiful—large metropolitan areas crowded with hospitals that offer varying degrees of expertise across a range of medical specialties.
In principle, going to a renowned medical center such as one of the nationally ranked U.S. News Best Hospitals is a solid option. But that could be difficult if it requires travel, expensive if not covered by health insurance, and unnecessary except in the most challenging medical cases. No wonder most hospital patients stay close to home.
To take a bite out of their guesswork, U.S. News tapped its latest annual evaluation of the nation's nearly 5,000 hospitals and ranked the best ones in 94 U.S. metropolitan areas with 500,000 or more residents. Marking a major geographical expansion, this year's hospital rankings cover nearly twice as many cities as U.S. News covered in the past.
To find the best hospitals near you, begin by selecting the closest of the 94 metro areas with ranked hospitals. The top five hospitals (including fifth-place ties) in the five largest metro areas are listed below.
New York City
- New York-Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
- NYU Langone Medical Center
- Mount Sinai Medical Center
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- Hospital for Special Surgery
[See all 65 ranked hospitals in or near New York City.]
Los Angeles
- Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
- USC University Hospital
- University of California, Irvine Medical Center
- St. Vincent Medical Center
[See all 46 ranked hospitals in or near Los Angeles.]
Chicago
- Northwestern Memorial Hospital
- University of Chicago Medical Center
- Rush University Medical Center
- Loyola University Medical Center
- University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago
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