Maryland's Best Hospitals: U.S. News Rankings For 2020–2021

MARYLAND — U.S. News & World Report has released its latest rankings of the best hospitals in the United States, and one Maryland institution made it into the top three.

Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore was ranked third-best in the nation for care, after the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was ranked number one for the fifth consecutive year. Coming in second was the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

The rankings come from data that was derived before the coronavirus pandemic.

"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 Honor Roll, top-ranked hospitals in 16 specialty categories, and the top-ranked hospitals by state and metro region.

Honor Roll Hospitals

U.S. News said the hospitals that make the Honor Roll deliver exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care.

“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, explaining that by definition, that means hospitals that 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

Hospitals were also ranked in 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.

Johns Hopkins Hospital ranked top in the nation for ear, nose and throat; neurology and neurosurgery; psychiatry; and rheumatology.

It was third for urology, after the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York; and it was third for ophthalmology, after Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami and Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia.

Regional Hospital Rankings

These are the top-ranked hospitals in Maryland by U.S. News for 2020–2021:

• 1. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore; nationally ranked in 15 adult specialties (cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; ear, nose and throat; gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; gynecology; neurology and neurosurgery; nephrology; ophthalmology; orthopedics; psychiatry; pulmonology and lung surgery; rheumatology; and urology) as well as 10 pediatric specialties (neonatology; pediatric cancer; pediatric cardiology and heart surgery; pediatric diabetes and endocrinology; pediatric gastroenterology and GI surgery; pediatric nephrology; pediatric neurology and neurosurgery; pediatric orthopedics; pediatric pulmonology and lung surgery; and pediatric urology)
• 2. University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) Downtown Campus, Baltimore; nationally ranked for cancer; ear, nose and throat; and pediatric cardiology and heart surgery
• 3. University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson
• 4. Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis (tie)
• 4. MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore (tie)
• 6. Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Towson
• 7. Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Salisbury (tie)
• 7. Suburban Hospital, Bethesda (tie)
• 9. University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Glen Burnie
• 10. Frederick Regional Hospital, Frederick (tie)
• 10. Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring (tie)
• 10. MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, Baltimore County (tie)

Johns Hopkins ranked nationally in all but rehabilitation, according to U.S. News.

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.

“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 methodology for ranking the best hospitals.

— By Patch editors Tim Moran and Elizabeth Janney

See Also:

• Best Hospitals In Maryland: U.S. News 2019 Rankings
• 10 Maryland Hospitals Ranked Among America's Best In 2020 By Healthgrades
• Best And Worst MD Hospital Safety Grades 2020: Report