Johns Hopkins Hospital Named Best in America

By Sonia Su

Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital ranked No. 1 out of about 5,000 hospitals nationally in the annual U.S. News and World Report  rankings released Tuesday.

"We're very pleased about that, because we had quite a story going," Ronald Peterson, president of Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, told The Baltimore Sun.

Johns Hopkins took the top spot in five specialty areas—Ear, Nose and Throat; Geriatrics; Neurology and Neurosurgery; Rheumatology; and Urology. It is among the top six in 15 of 16 specialty areas.

Updated every July, the rankings are divided into 16 individual specialties, 12 of which list the top 50 hospitals, based on death rates for the most demanding cases, patient safety, an annual survey of physicians' view of the best hospitals in their respective specialties and more, according to U.S. News.

The rankings put the most weight on reputation with specialists and survival, at 32.5 percent each.

Hospital executives hadn't set out to regain top honors, Peterson told the paper, adding that he didn't understand how Johns Hopkins had fallen behind Massachusetts General Hospital last year.

"It's not absolutely clear to me that you can do anything just in a year's time," Peterson told The Sun. "So it's not exactly something you can necessarily plan for."

Health rankings editor Avery Comarow wrote that these rankings should only be a starting point for patients and that they have to do their own research.

Businesswoman Lynne Kruger, owner of Lynne's Gifts in Hampden, said Baltimore was proud of its prestigious health facility.

"I think it's fantastic," Kruger said of the ranking, "because I'm from Baltimore and Baltimore's No. 1."

Read more on The Baltimore Sun, and see the full 2013 rankings on U.S. News.