Children's Memorial Hospital named one of the top pediatric hospitals in the U.S. by U.S. News&World Report

July 2004 -- For the past 12 years, Children's Memorial Hospital has been named one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country, according to physicians surveyed by U.S. News & World Report. Children's Memorial is ranked in the top ten nationally and the number one pediatric hospital in Illinois.

Every year, U.S. News conducts the survey assessing hospital care at 1,700 hospitals nationwide. More than 2,550 physicians were randomly selected from the American Medical Association's data base and asked to name the top five hospitals in their specialties they considered the best without taking location or expense into account. According to US News, the 'America's Best Hospitals' survey is the only effort to compare hospitals fairly on a national scale. It is designed to help consumers begin their search for quality care.

The pediatrics specialty area is ranked solely on the basis of reputation (other specialty areas are ranked based on an average of three categories: reputation, mortality, and "other data"). One-hundred fifty board-certified pediatric specialists are selected at random from the American Medical Association's database and asked to name the five hospitals they consider best in their specialty (pediatrics) without considering cost or location. The score for each year is given as a percentage. It represents the percent of pediatric specialists surveyed who identified the hospital as one of the top five hospitals regardless of cost or location.

Children's Memorial physicians are faculty members at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School.

The 2004 ranking appears in the July issue.

For more information, contact Julie Pesch at 773.880.3055.