By Chris Miller, Assistant Editor, Facility Market

U.S News & World Report put out its best hospital rankings report for 2021-22 on July 27, with Mayo Clinic listed at the number one spot for the sixth year in a row. The other healthcare facilities within the top five include Cleveland Clinic, UCLA Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital. This is the 32nd annual ranking done by U.S news. To create a ranking system,  4,750 hospitals are compared around the country across 15 specialties and 17 procedures and conditions, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. 175 of those hospitals were nationally ranked in at least one specialty. This year the collected data come from a period of time before the pandemic. The hospital rankings are intended to help patients with rare or life-threatening conditions make knowledgeable choices concerning where to receive care.

Proper patient care makes for a great hospital and can mean many things such as adequate infection control procedures, provider care, appropriate room design, good indoor air quality, strong facility and IT security among other things. Mayo Clinic placed at the top in procedures relating to diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and GI surgery, gynecology, nephrology, pulmonology and lung surgery as well as urology. It ranked second in cardiology and heart surgery along with orthopedics while ranking third in cancer treatment and rheumatology. The healthcare enterprise is comprised of nearly 73,000 employees. 

This year's rankings of best hospitals included some new criteria regarding health equity, mostly focusing on whether the patients treated at hospitals around the country reflect the racial and ethnic variety of their local communities. It was found that at 80 percent of reviewed hospitals, the local community’s minority residents were under-represented among patients getting procedures such as joint replacement, cancer surgery and common heart procedures. This includes Mayo Clinic.