The UCLA Health System's Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has been ranked the No. 1 hospital in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and its Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital has been ranked No. 5, in U.S. News & World Report's first-ever "Best Hospitals" metro area rankings, available online at www.usnews.com/hospitals.
The new rankings recognize 622 hospitals in or near major cities with a record of high performance in key medical specialties, including 132 of the 152 hospitals already identified by U.S. News as among the best in the nation. There are nearly 5,000 hospitals nationwide.
"We put the patient at the core of everything we do -- that's the ultimate standard," said Dr. David Feinberg, CEO and associate vice chancellor of the UCLA Hospital System. "This is a wonderful tribute to our entire health care team, who provide excellence in patient-centered care. We are grateful to our gifted and dedicated medical and support team throughout the UCLA Health System who go the extra mile every day to save lives and deliver compassionate care to patients in our community, one patient at a time."
"The rankings reflect the growth of our Santa Monica campus into an evolving academic medical center that maintains its longstanding tradition of community care," said Posie Carpenter, chief administrative officer at the Santa Monica facility. "We can offer patients the best of both worlds -- the expertise of an academic medical center, combined with the personalized and patient-friendly service of a community-based hospital."
U.S. News ranked hospitals within all of the 52 U.S. metropolitan areas with populations of 1 million or more, using existing data from the 2010-11 "Best Hospitals" rankings.
The new metro area rankings are relevant to a much wider range of health care consumers. They are aimed primarily at consumers whose care may not demand the special expertise found only at a nationally ranked best hospital. Patients and their families will have a far better chance of finding a U.S. News-ranked hospital in their health insurance network and might not have to travel to get care at the highest performing hospitals.
To be ranked in its metro area, a hospital had to score in the top 25 percent among its peers in at least one of 16 medical specialties.
"All of these hospitals provide first-rate care for the majority of patients, even those with serious conditions or who need demanding procedures," says U.S. News health rankings editor Avery Comarow. "The new 'Best Hospitals' metro rankings can tell you which hospitals are worth considering for most medical problems if you live in or near a major metro area."
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