Where Newton-Wellesley Stood In Recent US News & World Report Rankings

WELLESLEY, MA — U.S. News and World Report released its annual rankings of the best hospitals in the country for 2017-18, ranking more than 4,500 medical centers in the U.S. in 25 specialties, procedures and conditions.

The rankings also looked at the best hospitals in every state and the 20 hospitals that made it to the honor roll, a distinction given to hospitals that deliver exceptional treatment across multiple specialties.

Newton-Wellesley was not among them. But it did make the list of 5,000 that got graded.

Although it technically sits in Newton's Lower Falls, it's the closest hospital to Wellesley. Newton-Wellesley Hospital is a general medical and surgical hospital with 264 beds. Survey data for the latest year available shows that 56,729 patients visited the hospital's emergency room. The hospital had a total of 13,838 admissions. Its physicians performed 3,778 inpatient and 9,856 outpatient surgeries.

It scored a 32 out of 100 when it came to treating cancer, but received an "excellent" when it came to patient services in that department. It received a higher 54.5 out of 100 for its treatment of patients with diabetes.

Among the handful of Boston area hospitals to make the actual rankings was Mass. General, which ranked as the No. 1 hospital in Massachusetts, No. 4 in the country. MGH ranked in the top 50 in 16 adult specialties, including nine top-5 rankings. The hospital was No. 2 in diabetes and endocrinology, ear nose and throat, and psychiatry.

Brigham and Women's main campus ranked in the top 50 in 11 adult specialties, including three top-5 rankings. The hospital finished fourth in cancer and gynecology.

Tufts and Boston Medical each finished in the top 50 in one adult specialty.

The methodology used by U.S. News is based largely on objective measures with more than 70 percent of the rankings relying on such data. The rankings also took into account survey answers from more than 125,000 physicians across the country about reputation. U.S. News also looked at five years of Medicare data and the number of patients treated in hospitals. The methodology was also updated to avoid penalizing hospitals for treating low-income hospitals or for accepting high-risk cases transferred from other hospitals. For the best regional hospitals, procedures and conditions rankings were emphasized more than specialty rankings.

- Mike Carraggi contributed to this article

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