Best Hospitals In DC Region: U.S. News 2020 Rankings

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. News & World Report has released its latest rankings of the best hospitals in the United States. The rankings come from data that was derived before the coronavirus pandemic, so the impact on hospitals nationwide is not reflected in the latest rankings.

"The pandemic has altered, perhaps permanently, how patients get care and from whom they get it. Amid the disruption, we are steadfastly committed to providing the public with authoritative data for comparing hospital quality," said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. "No hospital's clinical team came through this unprecedented health crisis unscathed."

The hospital rankings for 2020-21 include the best hospitals by specialty, region and overall.

Hospitals were ranked across 16 specialties: cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; ear, nose and throat; gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; gynecology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; ophthalmology; orthopedics; psychiatry; pulmonology and lung surgery; rehabilitation; rheumatology; and urology.

Of those, 12 are dictated mostly by data, while ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and rheumatology are determined entirely by expert opinion, according to U.S. News.

D.C. Area Hospital Rankings

These are the top-ranked hospitals in the D.C. area by U.S. News for 2020–2021, including four that are nationally ranked for specialties:

1. Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Virginia

• Nationally ranked in one adult specialty: gynecology (No .9)

2. MedStar Washington Hospital Center, D.C.

• Nationally ranked in one adult specialty: cardiology & heart surgery (No. 34)

3. Virginia Hospital Center, Arlington, Virginia

• High performing in seven procedures and conditions

4. Inova Alexandria Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia

• High performing in five procedures and conditions

4. Mary Washington Hospital, Fredericksburg, Virginia

• High performing in 5 procedures and conditions

4. Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland

• High performing in one adult speciality and four procedures and conditions

7. George Washington University Hospital, D.C.

• High performing in one adult specialty and three procedures and conditions

7. Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, Fairfax Virginia

• High performing in one adult speciality and three procedures and conditions

7. Sibley Memorial Hospital, D.C.

• High performing in four procedures and conditions

10. Frederick Regional Hospital, Frederick, Maryland

• High performing in three procedures and conditions

10. Holy Cross Hospital-Silver Spring, Silver Spring, Maryland

• High performing in three procedures and conditions

1o. Reston Hospital Center, Reston, Virginia

• High performing in three procedures and conditions

In addition, Children's National Hospital in D.C. is on the U.S. News Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll (No. 7) and is nationally ranked in 10 children's specialties: neonatology (No. 1), pediatric cancer (No. 6), pediatric cardiology & heart surgery (#38), pediatric diabetes & endocrinology (#10), pediatric gastroenterology & GI surgery (#21), pediatric nephrology (No. 7), pediatric neurology & neurosurgery (No. 3), pediatric orthopedics (No. 9), pediatric pulmonology & lung surgery (No. 9), and pediatric urology (No. 25).

Honor Roll Hospitals

For the fifth year, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was ranked the best hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio was second, followed by Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
They were named to the Honor Roll for delivering exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care, according to U.S. News.

"The Honor Roll is geared to identifying hospitals that are both exceptionally good at the service they offer and offer a wide breadth of service," Harder told Patch last year. By definition, he said, hospitals on the list are highly ranked across many or most specialties.

Here are the hospitals on the Honor Roll for 2020–2021:

• 1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
• 2. Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland
• 3. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
• 4. New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, New York (tie)
• 4. UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles (tie)
• 6. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• 7. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
• 8. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
• 9. NYU Langone Hospitals, New York
• 10. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
• 11. University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor
• 12. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
• 13. Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Stanford, California
• 14. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
• 15. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
• 16. Mayo Clinic-Phoenix, Phoenix
• 17. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
• 18. Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis (tie)
• 18. Keck Hospital of USC, Los Angeles (tie)
• 20. Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston

This year, the U.S. News rankings are accompanied by their "Hospital Heroes" project, a series of profiles highlighting more than 60 health care heroes from across the country.

The critical care chief at Children's Hospital in D.C. and speech language pathologists at MedStar Georgetown Hospital in D.C. were among those recognized.

"Our Hospital Heroes series is a tribute to recognizing individuals at urban and rural hospitals in communities across the country who have gone above and beyond during this unparalleled time in history," Harder said.

Methodology

U.S. News & World Report said the 2020-21 rankings evaluated nearly every community hospital in America.

Only 134 hospitals out of over 4,500 were ranked in one specialty, while 563 hospitals were ranked among the best regional hospitals. A hospital was ranked regionally based on its performance in delivering complex and common care, U.S. News said. The rankings are jointly produced by U.S. News and RTI International, a North Carolina-based research organization.

Read the full U.S. News best hospitals methodology.

— By Patch editors Tim Moran and Elizabeth Janney