University of Colorado Hospital Ranks Among Nation’s Best in 2008

Hospital is named as one of the best in six specialties by U.S. News & World Report – and recognized in more categories than any other hospital in Colorado

AURORA, Colo. (July 11, 2007) – University of Colorado Hospital is once again among the nation’s best medical centers, ranking in the top 25 in the nation in six of 16 medical specialties, according to the latest “America’s Best Hospitals” survey by U.S. News & World Report. University of Colorado Hospital was the only hospital in Colorado to be named in four of the six categories.

U.S. News & World Report cited University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) as one of the best hospitals in the nation for endocrinology, gynecology, kidney disease, respiratory disorders, rehabilitation medicine, and rheumatology. It is the 14th consecutive year the magazine has listed the hospital as among the nation’s elite in various specialties.

According to U.S. News & World Report, the goal of the rankings is “to identify facilities that excel at treating a variety of demanding illnesses and procedures.” Hospitals are “judged not in routine procedures but in difficult cases across an entire specialty.”

Out of 5,463 U.S. hospitals “put through a rigorous statistical mill,” only 3 percent, or 170 in all, scored high enough to appear in any of the specialty rankings. UCH was the only hospital in the Denver area to be recognized in more than one specialty. Craig Hospital and National Jewish Medical & Research Center were each cited in one medical specialty.

In this year’s survey, University of Colorado Hospital ranked among the best in the following six categories: respiratory disorders, 11th nationwide; kidney disease, 15th; endocrinology/diabetes, 20th; rehabilitation medicine, 20th; gynecology, 24th; and rheumatology, 25th.

The magazine has issued its annual survey of American hospitals since 1990 in an effort to identify the nation’s top health care centers.

“The dedication and hard work of all our physicians, staff, nurses, administrators and support staff are reflected in each and every ranking we receive year after year,” said University of Colorado Hospital President and CEO Bruce Schroffel. “This type of national recognition reinforces our mission to provide the best possible health care to our patients as a world-class teaching and research hospital for the people of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region.”

The magazine used hospital reputation, mortality data, and quality-of-care measures such as patient volume, nurse-to-patient ratios and availability of advanced medical technologies to determine a hospital’s overall performance. Ranked hospitals were cited by at least 3 percent of responding physicians.

It used data to rank the hospitals in 12 of the 16 specialties it evaluated. In the other four specialties – rehabilitation, rheumatology, ophthalmology, and psychiatry – ranking was determined by physician surveys and the overall reputation of the specialty at the eligible hospitals. The reasoning behind the reputation rankings was that mortality data are less relevant or unreliable in those four specialties.

Initial eligibility for the data-driven specialties required a hospital to meet three standards, including membership in the Council of Teaching Hospitals, affiliation with a medical school, and availability of at least six out of 13 key technologies such as robotic surgery. For the last two years, nearly two-thirds of all hospitals were ineligible for the rankings because they did not have membership in the Council of Teaching Hospitals.

U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 “America’s Best Hospitals” report will be featured in the magazine’s print edition, which will be available on newsstands on Monday, July 14. All hospital rankings will also be available online at www.USNews.com on Friday, July 11.

The University of Colorado Hospital is the Rocky Mountain region's leading academic medical center, and has been recognized as one of the United States’ best hospitals, according to U.S. News & World Report. It is best known as an innovator in patient care and often as one of the first hospitals to bring new medicine to patients’ bedsides. Located at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., the hospital is affiliated with the University of Colorado Denver, one of three universities in the University of Colorado system. For more information, visit the UC Denver Newsroom.