Newsweek magazine has released its fifth annual World’s Best Hospitals list, and of the 420 hospitals ranked in the United States, six North Texas hospitals made the cut.
UT Southwestern Medical Center was named the top in the region, second best in the state, and 44th in the US, followed closely by Baylor University Medical Center at 3rd in the state and 47th in the country, and Medical City Dallas, which was sixth in the state and 68th in the country. Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Plano, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest Fort Worth, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas were also ranked in the top 420 in the country.
Only Houston Methodist Hospital, the top hospital in Texas, and UT Southwestern Medical Center made the list of the 250 best hospitals in the world, at No. 81 and No. 239, respectively. Last year, Baylor Univeristy Medical Center was listed among the top 250 in the worldwide ranking. According to this year’s rankings, the top four hospitals in the world were all in the US, including Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, and The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Newsweek and global data firm Statista ranked over 2,300 hospitals in 28 countries for this year’s list. This was the first year all top 250 global hospitals were ranked. The list includes the best hospitals by country, and each country list also includes a listing of top specialty hospitals.
The lists are based on four data sources, including recommendations from medical experts (doctors, hospital managers, health care professionals), patient survey results, hospital data (quality of treatment and hygiene measures), and Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROM) implementation surveys. This is the first year Newsweek added PROMs as a data source. PROMs are standardized, validated questionnaires completed by patients to measure their perception of their functional well-being and quality of life.
Each category was weighted, with peer recommendation accounting for about half of the score and hospital quality metrics nearly a third. The categories were graded on a scale of 100, giving each hospital a weighted percentage score.
The goal of this list was to provide patients with a data-based comparison of how hospitals rank in their communities. The hope is that patients and their families will find this list helpful when deciding how to best care for themselves and their loved ones.
“The world’s best hospitals consistently attract the best people and provide the best outcomes for patients as well as the most important new therapies and research,” wrote Newsweek’s Global Editor inChief, Nancy Cooper. “Of all the hospitals in the world, relatively few can do all those things year in and year out. The best belong to a very exclusive club.”
UTSW scored 70.7 percent, BUMC scored 70.59 percent, and Medical City Dallas scored 68.76 percent. The rest of the North Texas hospitals scored between 65 and 62 percent, so only a little separated the top hospitals in Texas from each other. The top three hospitals in the country all scored above 92 percent.
The Houston area edged out North Texas in the ranking, with seven ranked national hospitals to DFW’s six. The Austin area had four ranked hospitals, but San Antonio and El Paso had none. The rankings, especially at the top end of the state’s hospitals, was very similar to U.S. News and World Report‘s hospital ranking list.
These sorts of lists have been criticized by those arguing that the top hospitals are not accessible for those who need the care the most and may be more costly than other facilities. Washington Monthly and the Lown Institute put out their own ranking of hospitals that have quality outcomes and are accessible to anyone, with JPS and Parkland in North Texas both landing among the top 10.
You can explore the Newsweek rankings here.
