The U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals rankings are released annually each summer. Data from the previous calendar year are collected for the Pediatric Hospital Survey (PHS) submitted annually by participating hospitals to U.S. News each February.
In 2017, 10 specialties were included in the rankings: Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Diabetes & Endocrinology, Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Nephrology, Neonatology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology and Urology.
In addition to the specialty rankings, there is an honor roll that recognizes the 10 hospitals with the highest rankings across all 10 specialties. This year, points were assigned to a hospital by their rank in each specialty. The points were summed across the 10 specialties, and the 10 hospitals with the most points were assigned to the honor roll, with their honor roll ranking determined by the number of total points earned.
U.S. News adjusts methodology each year. In 2017, the organization made changes to weighting, outcomes measures and honor roll assessment. More changes are expected in these areas for 2018.
Year-round, doctors Jeff Jacobs, Aaron Milstone and Amy Phillips—along with other children’s hospitals faculty nationwide—work closely with representatives from U.S. News to revise the methodology to reflect current literature and best practices that gauge the true quality of pediatric care.
See the methodology chart to the right.