UAB Hospital has been again named the best hospital in Alabama by U.S. News & World Report. Additionally, the magazine named eight specialty programs within the top 50 in the nation, seven of those within the top 30, along with two others noted as being “high performing” in the 2020-2021 Best Hospital rankings, released today.
Ranked programs included rheumatology at No. 10, gynecology at No. 15, otolaryngology at No. 22, cardiology/heart surgery at No. 24, pulmonology/lung surgery at No. 25, Cancer at No. 25, nephrology at No. 29, and geriatrics at No. 49. High-performing specialties were gastroenterology/GI surgery and neurology/neurosurgery.
This was the first top 25 ranking of the UAB’s cancer program, housed in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
UAB was also recognized as being high-performing in eight adult procedures/conditions: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, aortic valve surgery, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), colon cancer surgery and lung cancer surgery.
“Consumers have many choices when deciding where to turn for health care, and UAB’s continued recognition as the best hospital in Alabama and one of the leading academic medical institutions in the nation is a reflection of the quality of care delivered by our faculty and staff day after day,” said Reid Jones, CEO of UAB Medicine. “The consistent excellence of our patient care, our cutting-edge research and innovative therapies mark UAB as the destination of choice in Alabama, the Southeast and beyond.”
Rankings like U.S. News & World Report’s are just one tool available to patients as they make informed decisions about their health care. UAB Medicine’s Find a Provider directory is a reliable source of verified and up-to-date information garnered from actual patients. The rating and reviews feature gives patients an alternative to third-party rating sites. More than 82 percent of eligible UAB physicians had a posted rating of at least four stars on the five-star scale.
The Best Hospitals specialty rankings assess hospital performance in 16 specialties or specialty areas. In 12 of these, rankings are determined by an extensive data-driven analysis combining performance measures in three primary dimensions of health care: structure, process/expert opinion, and outcomes. In the four other specialties, ranking relies solely on expert opinion.
The structural measures include hospital volume, nurse staffing and other resources that define the hospital environment. The data source for most structural measures is the American Hospital Association Annual Survey. Additional resources include the National Cancer Institute’s list of NIH-designated cancer centers and the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s roster of Nurse Magnet hospitals.
(Courtesy of UAB)
