Lurie Children’s Hospital is the No. 1 children’s hospital in Illinois and tied for No. 3 in the Midwest this year, according to new U.S. News & World Report rankings.
U.S. News named Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital the second best children’s hospital in Illinois and Advocate Children’s Hospital third. Last year, Comer and Advocate were tied for second place.
This year, Comer ranked 17th in the Midwest and Advocate tied for 22nd in the Midwest.
An Illinois hospital has not ranked on U.S. News’ list of the nation’s top 10 children’s hospitals since 2018, when Lurie last earned that honor.
“We are obviously very proud to be ranked No. 1,” said Dr. Marcelo Malacuti, Lurie’s chief medical officer. “I think the rankings will be an important tool and guide for families who may have complex children and are trying to understand what is best for their family and their specific conditions.”
He said he was confident Lurie would be back in the nation’s top 10 “in the near future.” For Lurie, while a focus on clinical outcomes is important, the hospital also offers comprehensive comprehensive care that “really goes beyond the areas in which it is ranked,” including family support, community outreach, and state-of-the-art treatment. ” is also a priority, he said.
To create the rankings, U.S. News and research consulting firm RTI International collected and analyzed data from 108 children’s hospitals across the United States and surveyed thousands of pediatric specialists. Rankings are determined based on factors such as outcomes (survival, infection, complications, etc.), patient safety commitment, clinical resources, family focus, and expert opinion.
U.S. News evaluated children’s hospitals across 11 specialties. Lurie Hospital ranked among the top 50 children’s hospitals in the nation in all 11 specialties, and in the top 25 in at least nine of those specialties. Lurie’s highest specialty rankings were No. 7 in the country in neurology and neurosurgery, and No. 10 in neonatology.
Comer ranks among the nation’s top 50 children’s hospitals in four specialties (behavioral health, cancer, neurology/neurosurgery, and urology), and Advocate ranks in one specialty (cardiology and heart surgery). did.
Comer’s ranking “represents the outstanding care we provide,” said Dr. John Cunningham, Comer’s physician and chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Among other services, he touted the hospital’s surgeries for children whose epilepsy is not well controlled with medications and its ability to offer gene therapy to children with sickle cell disease.
Still, both he and Malacooty cautioned that patients should use the rankings as just another piece of information when choosing a hospital.
“Medicine, especially pediatrics, is much more nuanced than rankings alone can capture,” Malacooty says. “That’s one piece of the puzzle. …The most important thing to me is the quality of care the child is receiving.”
Experts advise consumers to check multiple reviews, health insurance coverage, and consider doctors’ recommendations when choosing a hospital for non-emergency cases.
Many organizations rank and evaluate hospitals each year, often using different methodologies and reaching different conclusions. Newsweek magazine recently ranked Lurie as the ninth best pediatric hospital in the world.
High-performing hospitals often pay close attention to rankings and ratings and use them in advertising in hopes of attracting more patients in competitive medical markets such as the Chicago area.
U.S. News has tied Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio as the best children’s hospitals in the Midwest, and said the two hospitals are among the nation’s top 10. This year’s list of America’s top 10 hospitals also includes Boston Children’s Hospital in alphabetical order. Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego; Seattle Children’s Hospital; and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
