U.S. News ranks Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center among top five American hospitals

Jul 22 2011

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center ranks among the top five American hospitals, according to a U.S. News & World Report survey that reviewed patient-outcomes data, reputation among physicians and other care-related factors. The medical center also was rated the best hospital in the western United States for the 22nd consecutive year and the No. 1 hospital in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

"Our purpose is to heal humankind, one patient at a time," said Dr. David Feinberg, president of the UCLA Health System and UCLA associate vice chancellor for health sciences. "Every day, every night and every holiday, our team of incredible doctors, nurses and staff comes to work to make sure that every patient we see is treated like a member of our own family. While we are pleased with this recognition, what really drives us is ensuring that every patient that comes through our doors gets care that is compassionate, safe, of the highest quality, and delivered with dignity and respect."

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is also the only hospital in Los Angeles and the Southern California region that appears on the magazine's "Honor Roll." The latest rankings showcase 720 hospitals out of about 5,000 nationwide. Each is ranked among the country's top hospitals in at least one medical specialty and/or is ranked among the best hospitals in its metropolitan area. Just 17 hospitals made the national honor roll, a distinction that signals both rare breadth and depth of medical excellence.

The rankings can be found online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals and will be featured in the U.S. News "Best Hospitals" guidebook, which will go on sale Aug. 30.

The goal of U.S. News' "Best Hospitals" is to help guide patients who need an especially high level of care because of a difficult surgery, a challenging condition or added risks because of other health problems or age.

"These are referral centers where other hospitals send their sickest patients," said Avery Comarow, U.S. News' health rankings editor. "Hospitals like these are ones you or those close to you should consider when the stakes are high."

"This honor confirms, once again, that the UCLA Health System is one of the premier health care providers in the nation," said Dr. A. Eugene Washington, UCLA vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "We take tremendous pride in receiving this prestigious recognition of our high-quality, exemplary patient-centered care. I commend and congratulate each member of our UCLA Health System team for putting patients first and helping us earn this distinction."

Covering 94 metro areas in the U.S., the metropolitan region hospital rankings complement the national rankings by including hospitals with solid performance, nearly at the level of nationally ranked institutions. The regional rankings are aimed primarily at consumers whose care may not demand the special expertise found only at a nationally ranked "best hospital" or who may not be willing or able to travel long distances for medical care. The U.S. News metro rankings give many such patients and their families more options of hospitals within their community and in their health insurance network.

Hard numbers stand behind the rankings in most areas -- death rates, patient safety, procedure volume and other objective data. Responses to a national survey, in which physicians were asked to name hospitals they consider the best in their specialty for the toughest cases, also were factored in.

The rankings cover 16 medical specialties and include all 94 metro areas that have at least 500,000 residents and at least one hospital that performed well enough to be ranked.

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center was rated one of the top five hospitals in the nation, along with Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, which ranked first; Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which was second; the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., which was third; and the Cleveland Clinic, which was fourth.

The "Best Hospitals" honor roll highlights the medical centers that were ranked at or near the top in at least six specialties. Nationally, UCLA ranked in the top 20 in 15 of the 16 specialty areas. In each of the following specialties, UCLA's national rankings are indicated: cancer at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (10); cardiology and heart surgery (9); diabetes and endocrinology (7); ear, nose and throat (11); gastroenterology (6); geriatrics (2); gynecology (13); kidney disorders/nephrology (7); neurology and neurosurgery (7); ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute (5); orthopaedics (19); psychiatry at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA (7); pulmonology (13); rheumatology (6); and urology (4).

In addition, the UCLA Health System's Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA was ranked No. 8 and its Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital was ranked No. 15, both designated as high-performing hospitals in the Los Angeles metro area.

"These are hospitals we call 'high performers,'" Comarow said. "They are fully capable of giving most patients first-rate care, even if they have serious conditions or need demanding procedures. Almost every major metro area has at least one of these hospitals."

Recently, the UCLA Health System was the focus of "Prescription for Excellence," a book focusing on leadership lessons from the UCLA Health System for creating a world-class customer experience.