University Times

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh has been named to U.S. News & World Report’s 2012-13 Honor Roll of Best Children’s Hospitals, one of only 12 hospitals in the nation to earn the distinction.

The Best Children’s Hospitals rankings feature 50 pediatric hospitals ranked in each of 10 specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopaedics, pulmonology and urology. Hospitals that ranked high in three or more specialties made the honor roll.

Children’s Hospital was ranked in nine specialties and met the criteria for the honor roll by earning a high ranking in at least three specialties. Children’s ranked 6th in diabetes and endocrinology; 6th in gastroenterology; 8th in neonatology, and 10th in urology.

This year, U.S. News surveyed 178 pediatric centers to obtain data such as availability of key resources and ability to prevent complications and infections. The hospital survey accounted for 75 percent of the rankings.

A separate reputational survey accounted for the remaining 25 percent. In this reputational survey, 1,500 pediatric specialists — 150 in each specialty — were asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty.

The 2012-13 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings are published online at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/pediatric-rankings.

The rankings also will be published in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2013 guidebook, which will be available in August.