News, Health, Ucla, Santa Monica

UCLA Health System In Santa Monica Ranked Among Nation's Best Hospitals

Posted Jul. 17, 2013, 9:29 am

Mirror Staff

The UCLA Health System's hospitals in Westwood and Santa Monica have been named to U.S. News and World Report's most exclusive rankings list: the Best Hospitals 2013–14 Honor Roll.

UCLA was ranked No. 5 in the country and No. 1 in both California and the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, now in their 24th year, recognize hospitals that excel at treating the most challenging patients.

This year's Honor Roll highlights just 18 hospitals out of nearly 5,000 nationwide for their rare breadth and depth of clinical excellence.  

"We are grateful and honored to again be recognized for the outstanding work of our physicians and staff on behalf of the patients who seek care at UCLA," said Dr. David Feinberg, president of the UCLA Health System and CEO of the UCLA Hospital System. "Our goal is to treat each patient who comes through our doors as if he or she were a member of our own family, with dignity and respect, in a compassionate and safe environment that delivers the highest-quality medical care available."

The Best Hospitals Honor Roll highlights medical centers that rank at or near the top in at least six of the 16 medical specialty areas evaluated.

In most specialties, U.S. News ranks the nation's top 50 hospitals in that area and also recognizes high-performing hospitals that provide care at nearly the level of their nationally ranked peers.

Nationally, UCLA ranked highly 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 (11); cardiology and heart surgery (17); diabetes and endocrinology (13); ear, nose and throat (11); gastroenterology and GI surgery (8); geriatrics (3); gynecology (38); nephrology (8); neurology and neurosurgery (9); ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute (5); orthopaedics (19); psychiatry at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA (9); pulmonology (24); rheumatology (8); and urology (4).

"A hospital that emerges from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of," said Avery Comarow, U.S. News' health rankings editor. "Just 147 hospitals, only about 3 percent of those in the U.S., earned a national ranking in even one specialty. Of those, only the few that ranked very highly in at least six specialties made the Honor Roll."

U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face a particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition or added risk because of other health problems or age.

Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, the adequacy of nurse staffing levels, and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties.

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News produced the state and metropolitan rankings.

The rankings are now available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in print in the "U.S. News Best Hospitals 2014" guidebook, available in bookstores and on newsstands August 27.

For information about clinical programs or help in choosing a personal physician, call 800-UCLA-MD1 or visit www.uclahealth.org.