For 18th Consecutive Year, Only Missouri Hospital Ranked Among America’s Elite
Contact:
Jason Merrill
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ST. LOUIS — Barnes-Jewish Hospital and its physician partners at Washington University School of Medicine are one of only 14 hospitals and medical institutions in the country listed among America’s elite medical centers in U.S.News & World Report’s List of “America’s Best Hospitals.”
For the 18th straight year, Barnes-Jewish was the only hospital in Missouri earning honors as part of the newsmagazine’s “Honor Roll,” ranking 8th nationally while ranking in 15 individual specialties. Barnes-Jewish is the only “Honor Roll” hospital within a 250-mile radius of St. Louis to be recognized and is the only St. Louis hospital to be ranked in more than one category.
The standards used to rank “America’s Best Hospitals” are rigorous. Of 4,852 U.S. hospitals, only 14 hospitals made the “Honor Roll,” a list reserved for medical centers with very high rankings in at least six specialties. Overall, only 152 have ranked specialties and only hospitals earning high marks in six or more of 12 select specialties made the “Honor Roll” of America’s best hospitals.
By individual specialty, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine rankings are:
The 2010 guide to “America’s Best Hospitals” appears online Thursday, July 15 at www.usnews.com/besthospitals and in the August issue of the national newsmagazine, which hits newsstands July 27.
“World class patient care, research and education are what make us a national leader in medicine,” says Rich Liekweg, Barnes-Jewish Hospital president. “To be ranked so consistently as an “Honor Roll” hospital speaks to the efforts of our nurses, staff and physician partners at Washington University.”
"We are always proud to have the doctors, nurses and other caregivers at Barnes-Jewish Hospital recognized as among the very best in the country, and we congratulate them on achieving this honor once again. Their efforts to provide the world's best medicine are noticed and appreciated, not only by the patients and families we serve, but by the larger medical community," says Steven H. Lipstein, BJC HealthCare president and chief executive officer. "We continue to benefit from the strong partnership between two nationally ranked institutions -- Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine -- both national leaders in medicine."
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.
For the seventh year a hospital’s Magnet status affected its standing. Barnes-Jewish Hospital was named St. Louis’ first Magnet Hospital in 2003 by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, formally recognizing the hospital as meeting high standards of nursing excellence. Barnes-Jewish was recertified for Magnet status in 2008.
Four specialty areas — ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and rheumatology — were ranked by reputation only. For the remaining 12 specialties — cancer; heart and heart surgery; digestive disorders; ear, nose and throat; geriatrics; gynecology; endocrinology; kidney disease; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; respiratory disorders; and urology — U.S.News combined each hospital's reputation ranking with quantitative medical data to determine the final scores.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital is a member of BJC HealthCare, which provides a full range of health care services through its 13 hospitals and more than 100 health care sites in Missouri and Illinois. Barnes-Jewish Hospital is also affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine, ranked as one of the nation’s top five medical schools by U.S.News & World Report.