ICYMI: Two Montgomery County Hospitals Ranked Among Best In Pa.

A version of this story originally appeared in Patch on July 22.

Six of the nation’s best hospitals are in Pennsylvania, according to a new ranking compiled by U.S. News and World Report, and two of the top hospitals in the region are in Montgomery County.

The Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania/Penn Presbyterian were ranked on the “Honor Roll” for the upper tier of the list, coming in at 9th overall in the nation and first in Pennsylvania.

Penn was ranked among the top 15 hospitals in the nation in 13 different specialties, including cancer (11), heart surgery (8), diabetes and endocrinology (10), ear, nose and throat (4), gastroenterology and GI surgery (13), geriatrics (14), gynecology (14), nephrology (19), neurology and neurosurgery (13), urology (12), orthopedics (24), psychiatry (13), and pulmonology (10.)

U.S. News analyzed the merits of 2,265 hospitals across the nation that met any of four key criteria:

• hospitals with teaching-hospital status
• medical school affiliation
• 200 or more beds set up and staffed
• 100 or more beds set up and staffed plus at least four medical technologies our of eight considered vital to quality care

About 48 percent of the initial pool of hospitals met those criteria. An in-depth glance at the methodology used to compile these rankings is available here.

After Penn, UPMC - the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, was ranked 13th in the nation and second in Pennsylvania. They were nationally ranked in six specialties.

Two Montgomery County hospitals were among the top 10 in the region. All centers in the top 6 were ranked nationally in at least one specialty:

3. Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown

4. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia

5. Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster

6. Lankenau Medical Center, Wynnewood

7. Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey

8. PinnacleHealth Hospitals, Harrisburg

9. Bryn Mawr Hospital, Bryn Mawr

10. Hahnemann University Hospital ,Philadelphia

For a full list of Pennsylvania hospitals that were regionally ranked, see the complete report.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was listed among the top tier of children’s hospitals, ranking in 10 specialties nationwide.

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC in Pittsburgh, Hershey’s Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia were also accorded national honors.

Many area hospitals were left off the regional rankings, including:

• Abington Memorial Hospital, Abington
• Abington Health Lansdale Hospital, Lansdale
• Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital, Malvern
• Brooke Glen Behaviorial Hospital, Fort Washington
• Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, East Norriton
• Eagleville Hospital, Eagleville
• Horsham Clinic, Ambler
• Mercy Suburban, Norristown
• Phoenixville Hospital, Phoenixville
• Physician’s Care Surgical Hospital, Royersford
• Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, Pottstown
• Valley Forge Medical Center, Norristown

This is the 26th year of the U.S. News and World report rankings, which have aimed to provide patients with “decision tools beyond a doctor’s recommendation” since 1990.

Image of CHOP courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania.