University Times

For the fifth consecutive year, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has been placed on U.S. News & World Report magazine’s America’s Best Hospitals 2003 Honor Roll as one of the “Best of the Best” hospitals in the United States.

U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Hospitals is an assessment of the nation’s hospitals based on an index made up of three equal parts related to quality of care: reputation, mortality and various factors such as procedure volume and nursing care.

UPMC remains the only area health system to receive the Best of the Best distinction and one of only two in Pennsylvania.

According to U. S. News & World Report, the Honor Roll recognizes those institutions that perform at a very high level across many specialties. UPMC hospitals placed 15th out of 6,003 eligible hospitals in the United States.

To be placed on the magazine’s Honor Roll, hospitals not only had to rank in certain specialty areas but they also had to be close to the top in a number of them. Also included on this select list of nationally prestigious institutions are Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

This year, UPMC is recognized in 15 specialty areas, more than any other hospital in western Pennsylvania.

UPMC Presbyterian placed in 13 specialty areas, UPMC’s Magee-Womens Hospital was ranked in gynecology and UPMC’s Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh was ranked in pediatrics.

“These rankings are a testament to the professionalism and hard work on the part of our physicians, nurses, researchers and other health care professionals who have once again been recognized as being among the best in the world,” stated Jeffrey Romoff, president of UPMC.

UPMC has seen a continuous rise in the number of specialty categories it has gained recognition for since 1996 when it first became a unified health system. That year, the system was only ranked in four categories: gastroenterology, otolaryngology, rheumatology and psychiatry.

The UPMC rankings include: ear, nose, and throat, 7th; pediatrics (Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh), 7th; cancer, 12th; psychiatry (Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic), 12th; orthopaedics, 13th; rheumatology, 13th; digestive Disorders, 16th; respiratory disorders, 17th; kidney disease, 17th; geriatrics, 20th; gynecology (Magee-Womens Hospital), 29th; heart and Heart Surgery, 31st; hormonal disorders (includes diabetes and other glandular conditions), 36th; neurology and Neurosurgery, 36th, and urology, 44th.

The new rankings will appear in the July 28 issue of U.S. News & World Report, which will be at newsstands July 21.