IU Health gets bragging rights in rankings of top hospitals in state, city

When it comes to bragging rights among American hospitals, there’s the top tier and everyone else.

The top tier is made of the most prestigious names in health care: the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital and a dozen or so others.

And, true to form, those three big-name hospitals took top honors in this year’s “Best Hospitals Honor Roll” by U.S. News, finishing first, second and third, in that order.

Rounding out the top 10 were Massachusetts General Hospital, University of Michigan Hospitals, University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Stanford Health Care, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Not a single hospital in Indiana ranked in the top 20. (The national rankings stop after 20.)

Nor did any Indiana hospital finish in the top 20 in any of 16 specialties, from cancer to urology.

Of course, there are plenty of ways to crunch and slice the numbers. And even though no Indiana hospital finished in the top batch, Indiana University Health Medical Center (a combination of Methodist Hospital, University Hospital and Saxony Hospital) gets bragging rights as the No. 1 hospital in Indiana and Indianapolis.

In fact, IU Health swept the top three awards for best Indianapolis hospitals, with IU Health North in Carmel and IU Health West in Avon tied for second place.

The next best hospitals in Indianapolis were Franciscan Health Indianapolis (No. 4) and St. Vincent Indianapolis (No. 5).

IU Health also achieved top 50 national rankings in eight clinical specialty areas. Its highest ranked clinical specialty was gastroenterology, in 22nd place.

No other adult hospital in Indiana won a national ranking (top 50) in any specialty.

U.S. News rolled out this year’s winners this month. The news organization conducts the rankings by analyzing data from nearly 5,000 hospitals, looking at survival, patient safety, nurse staffing and more.

Rounding out its bragging rights, IU Health Medical Center ranked nationally in cancer, cardiology & heart surgery, diabetes & endocrinology, gastroenterology & GI surgery, geriatrics, nephrology, neurology & neurosurgery, and pulmonology.

In the children’s hospital category, Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis ranked in the top 50 in eight specialties. Its highest place was No. 9 in pediatric urology. It was also nationally ranked for pediatric cancer, pediatric cardiology & heart surgery, pediatric diabetes & endocrinology, pediatric gastroenterology, and GI surgery, pediatric nephrology, pediatric neurology & neurosurgery, and pediatric urology.

Riley, however, did not finish among the top 10 for Best Children’s Hospitals overall. (The top three overall winners were Boston Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Hospital Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.)