Best Hospitals In North Carolina: New U.S. News Rankings

U.S. News & World Report has released its rankings of the best hospitals in America for 2018-19, evaluating more than 4,500 hospitals in the country across 16 specialties and nine procedures and conditions. U.S. News also ranked the best hospitals in America by region.

In North Carolina, Duke University Hospital was ranked as the state’s best hospital.

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was named the country’s best hospital. It was tops on an “honor roll” list of 20 hospitals noted for delivering “exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care.” The Minnesota hospital was ranked in 15 specialties and rated as “high performing” in one specialty. U.S News explains that a “high performing” rating means a hospital was not nationally ranked but was significantly better than average in a specialty.

In all, 158 hospitals in the country ranked nationally in at least one specialty and more than 1,100 hospitals were rated as high performing in at least one common procedure or condition, according to U.S. News. A total of 29 hospitals were rated as “high performing” in all nine procedures and conditions. Hospitals were not ranked numerically for procedures and conditions.

Among North Carolina’s 16 best hospitals, Duke University Hospital was ranked in 11 specialties and made the honor roll of best 20 hospitals; Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (no. 2) was ranked in seven specialties and rated as high performing in three specialties; University of North Carolina Hospitals (no. 3) were ranked in five specialties and rated as high performing in five specialties; Vidant Medical Center (no. 4) was ranked in two specialties and rated as high performing in five specialties; and Carolinas Medical Center (no. 5) was ranked in one specialty and rated as high performing in five specialities. No other Arizona hospitals were nationally ranked in any specialties.

According to the ranking, here are the best hospitals in North Carolina:

• Duke University Hospital (No. 1)

• Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (No. 2)

• University of North Carolina Hospitals (No. 3)

• Vidant Medical Center (No. 4)

• Carolinas Medical Center (No. 5)

• Mission Hospital (No. 6)

• Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital (No. 7)

• FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital (No. 8)

• UNC Rex Hospital (No. 8)

• Duke Regional Hospital (No. 10)

• WakeMed Health and Hospitals, Raleigh Campus (No. 11)

• New Hanover Regional Medical Center (No. 11)

• Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center (No. 11)

• Duke Raleigh Hospital (No. 14)

• Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center (No. 14)

• CarolinaEast Medical Center (No. 16)

The hospitals that made the 2018-19 honor roll are:

• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. (1)

• Cleveland Clinic (2)

• Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore (3)

• Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (4)

• University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor (5)

• UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco (6)

• UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles (7)

• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles (8)

• Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Stanford, Calif. (9)

• New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, N.Y. (10)

• Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis (11)

• Mayo Clinic Phoenix (11)

• Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago (13)

• Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia (14)

• NYU Langone Hospitals, New York (15)

• UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Pittsburgh (15)

• Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. (17)

• Mount Sinai Hospital, New York (18)

• Duke University Hospital, Durham, N.C. (19)

• Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston (20)

You can see the full rankings here.

U.S. News uses two methodologies, one for procedures and conditions ratings and another for specialty rankings. The rankings are produced by U.S. News with research organization, RTI International. U.S. News says its methodologies in most areas of care are based largely or entirely on objective measures like risk-adjusted survival and readmission rates, volume, patient experience, patient safety and quality of nursing. (You can read more about the methodology here. )

The specialties included in the rankings are:

• Cancer

• Cardiology and Heart Surgery

• Diabetes and Endocrinology

• Ear, Nose and Throat

• Gastroenterology and GI Surgery

• Geriatrics

• Gynecology

• Nephrology

• Neurology and Neurosurgery

• Ophthalmology

• Orthopedics

• Pulmonology

• Psychiatry

• Rehabilitation

• Rheumatology

• Urology

The procedures and conditions included in the rankings are:

• COPD

• Heart Bypass Surgery

• Heart Failure

• Hip Replacement

• Knee Replacement

• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

• Aortic Valve Surgery

• Colon Cancer Surgery

• Lung Cancer Surgery

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