U.S. News & World Report: Loma Linda University Medical Center #1 Hospital in Inland Empire

The following is a news release from Loma Linda University Medical Center:

For the fifth year in a row, Loma Linda University Medical Center has been ranked the Number 1 hospital in both Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and its urology program among the top 50 in the nation, by U.S. News & World Report. The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, now in its 25th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients.

“We are heartened to be recognized as the best hospital in the region for five years in a row, and for our urology department to be ranked among the best in the United States,” said Kerry Heinrich, interim CEO of Loma Linda University Medical Center.

“This recognition is testament to the commitment, hard work, and caring of all the doctors and staff at Loma Linda University Medical Center to provide the best possible whole-person care for our patients, and upholds our mission of continuing the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Loma Linda University Medical Center also was ranked 14th best in California, and recognized for 11 “high performing” specialties: cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; ear, nose and throat; gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; gynecology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; and pulmonology.

Dr. Herbert Ruckle, chief of the urology department, said “we are pleased that this recognition reflects positively on the commitment of the urology department, and the institution as a whole, to delivering excellent, whole person, patient centered care. Our department combines the delivery of comprehensive and cutting edge urology care with research and medical education. As a department we have grown to where we have urology faculty in all of the urology sub-specialties and are a valuable resource for the people in our region suffering from both simple and complex urologic disease.”

“The focus of Loma Linda University Medical Center and the Department of Urology on providing compassionate, evidence based care and on healing the whole person is something we are proud of and is very appreciated by our patients,” he said.

For 2014-15, U.S. News evaluated hospitals in 16 adult specialties and ranked the top 50 in most of the specialties. Just 3 percent of the nearly 5,000 hospitals that were analyzed for Best Hospitals 2014-15 earned national ranking in even one specialty.

U.S. News also recognizes hospitals that perform nearly at the level of their nationally ranked peers and represent valuable regional sources of quality care.

“The data tell the story – a hospital that emerged from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of,” says U.S. News Health Rankings Editor Avery Comarow. “A Best Hospital has demonstrated its expertise in treating the most challenging patients.”

U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition or extra risk because of age or multiple health problems. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, 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 metro rankings.

The rankings are freely available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitalsand will appear in the U.S. News “Best Hospitals 2015” guidebook, available in August.

(Photo: U.S. News & World Report has named Loma Linda University Medical Center the best hospital in the Inland Empire for the fifth year in a row, and recognized the hospital’s urology department among the best in the nation. In the photo, from left to right, Dr. Herbert Ruckle, Dr. Duane Baldwin, Dr. Paul Lui and Dr. Gary Barker, of the Department of Urology at Loma Linda University Medical Center.)