City of Hope once again has been named one of “America’s Best Hospitals” in two specialties by U.S.News & World Report. This marks the sixth year the institution has made the list.
City of Hope ranked 22nd on the list of top cancer hospitals and 36th on the list for urology.
In the Los Angeles area, the institution is the second-highest ranked cancer hospital. And it’s one of only seven centers in the entire state of California to appear on the cancer list.
In urology, City of Hope is one of just seven hospitals in California, and one of only four in the Los Angeles area, to be ranked.
One reason for City of Hope’s high ranking in urology: it’s home to the state’s largest prostate cancer program, according to data from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, which is charged with oversight of California’s health-care institutions.
Since 2003, City of Hope physicians have performed more urologic oncology procedures than any single institution in the U.S. That includes doing more robotic-assisted prostatectomy (prostate removal) and radical cystectomy (bladder removal) procedures than any other center in the West.
“This honor reaffirms our patient-centered approach to medicine and the excellence that our patient care teams deliver on a regular basis to support the patient and his or her family clinically, as well as emotionally, psychologically and socially,” said Alexandra Levine, M.D., City of Hope’s chief medical officer.
U.S. News’ 2009 edition of “America’s Best Hospitals” features 174 medical centers selected from 4,861 hospitals nationwide in 16 specialty areas.
U.S. News based its cancer hospital rankings on several criteria that include reputation among board-certified physicians, mortality rate, patient safety, the number of Medicare patients discharged, the ratio of nurses to patients, National Cancer Institute and nurse magnet hospital designations, the use of specific advanced technology and the availability of certain patient services.
Urology rankings were based on similar criteria.
Complete rankings of the top hospitals are available online and appears in the August issue of U.S. News.
