Shands Hospital for Children ranked among nation’s best in new U.S. News listing
Shands Hospital for Children at the University of Florida has been recognized among the nation’s best in seven medical specialties in the 2012-13 U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals rankings released today.
Three of the interdisciplinary UF and Shands pediatric programs were ranked highest in the state — diabetes and endocrinology (13th nationally), cardiology and heart surgery (25th nationally) and gastroenterology (27th nationally). Shands Hospital for Children also ranked 27th in nephrology, 32nd in pulmonology, 37th in neonatology and 49th in neurology and neurosurgery.
Shands at the University of Florida is currently ranked by U.S. News in 14 specialties, seven for adult and seven for pediatrics, the most of any hospital in the state.
“When you have a great team of clinical caregivers and researchers like we do at UF&Shands, it only follows that our children’s hospital and pediatric faculty will be recognized among the best in the nation,” said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. “Our goal is to provide the safest and highest quality of services to all our patients and their families. These rankings for the Shands Hospital for Children at UF encourage us to continue to improve and to seek recognition for additional programs that are worthy of this designation.”
The rankings feature 50 hospitals in each of 10 pediatric specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology. Eighty hospitals across the country ranked in one or more specialties.
“The recognition of so many of our pediatric specialties as among the best in the country, and the best in Florida, shows the greatness our program,” said Scott Rivkees, M.D., chairmen of the department of pediatrics, at the UF College of Medicine. “Our national recognition is due to the expertise of the phenomenal physicians and staff who care for the children who come to Shands Hospital for Children to receive the best treatment available anywhere. Our thanks and admiration goes to these dedicated individuals.”
This year U.S. News surveyed 178 pediatric centers to obtain hard data such as availability of key resources and ability to prevent complications and infections. The hospital survey made up 75 percent of the rankings. A separate reputational survey in which 1,500 pediatric specialists — 150 in each specialty — were asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty made up the remaining 25 percent.
The full rankings and methodology are available at www.usnews.com/childrenshospitals. The rankings also will be published in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2013 guidebook, which will be available in August.
Editor’s note: U.S. News issued corrections late in the day June 14 that affected the rankings for 70 hospitals across seven of the Best Children's Hospitals specialties. This article was revised slightly on June 15 to reflect those corrections, but the changes did not affect the status of the diabetes and endocrinology, cardiology and heart surgery, and gastroenterology programs as the highest ranked in the state of Florida.