July 15, 2010
Hamot Ranks Among the Best in Pulmonary Medicine in U.S. News Media Group's 2010-11 Best Hospitals
Hamot Medical Center has been ranked among the best in the specialty of Pulmonary Medicine in U.S. News & World Report's 2010-11 Best Hospitals, online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals and featured in the August print issue of U.S.News, available on newsstands July 27.
Best Hospitals 2010-11 includes rankings of 152 medical centers nationwide in 16 specialties, including cancer, diabetes and endocrinology, ear, nose, and throat, gastroenterology, geriatrics, gynecology, heart and heart surgery, kidney disorders, neurology and neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopedics, psychiatry, pulmonology, rehabilitation, rheumatology, and urology. Full data is available online for another 1,740 hospitals that qualified for ranking but did not score high enough to be ranked.
“Receiving this recognition validates Hamot’s constant commitment to high patient safety and quality standards,” Hamot President and CEO John Malone said. “What an incredible achievement for our pulmonary medicine physicians, the entire respiratory team and all of our employees who work hard each day to ensure that Hamot remains among the best in the nation. I’m proud to work with such dedicated people.”
The rankings in 12 of the 16 specialties were driven by hard data such as death rates, procedure volume, and balance of nurses and patients. In the four remaining specialties--ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation, and rheumatology--hospitals were ranked on reputation alone.
To be considered in any of the 12 data-driven specialties, a hospital first had to meet at least one of four criteria: It had to be a teaching hospital, or be affiliated with a medical school, or have at least 200 beds, or have 100 or more beds and the availability of four or more types of medical technology considered important in a high-quality medical facility, such as a PET/CT scanner and certain precision radiation therapies.
Next, the hospitals had to meet a volume requirement, individually calculated for each specialty. The required volume was the number of Medicare inpatients from 2006 to 2008 who had various specified procedures and conditions in the specialty. A hospital that fell short could still qualify if it had been nominated by at least one physician in any of the U.S. News Best Hospitals reputational surveys conducted in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
“When the stakes are high, you want the best care you can get for yourself or someone close to you,” said Health Rankings Editor Avery Comarow. “These hospitals are accustomed to seeing the sickest patients day in and day out.”
The Best Hospitals "Honor Roll" highlights 14 medical centers that were ranked at or near the top in at least six specialties.
The 2010-11 Honor Roll
1. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
2. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
3. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
4. Cleveland Clinic
5. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
6. New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
7. University of California, San Francisco Medical Center
8. Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis
9. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
10. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.
11. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
12. University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle
13. UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
14. University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, Ann Arbor
