Report: Baptist Medical centers No. 1 among Jacksonville hospitals

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville and Baptist Medical Center South, which share a license, were again ranked No. 1 among metro Jacksonville hospitals in the U.S. News and World Report annual Best Hospital rankings. The hospitals also ranked fourth in Florida, up from fifth last year.

U.S. News evaluates hospitals in 16 adult specialties. In most specialties, it ranks the nation's top 50 hospitals and recognizes other high-performing hospitals that provide care at nearly the level of their nationally ranked peers.

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Baptist Jacksonville and Baptist South were recognized in 11 of those 16 specialties, earning a national ranking for Diabetes and Endocrinology.

The hospitals were also ranked as high-performing in the following specialties:

  • Cancer
  • Cardiology & Heart Surgery
  • Gastroenterology & GI Surgery
  • Geriatrics
  • Gynecology
  • Nephrology
  • Neurology & Neurosurgery
  • Orthopaedics
  • Pulmonology
  • Urology

Of the more than 4,800 hospitals evaluated, only 147 were nationally ranked in one or more specialty.

"We pride ourselves on innovating to offer the latest evidence-based care for our patients, connecting them to all of the services they need and coordinating everything seamlessly to provide the best patient experience," said Michael Mayo, hospital president, Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville. "These rankings are again a reminder that we are truly changing health care for good in northeast Florida."

"This is a tremendous honor and speaks volumes about the high-quality, compassionate care our physicians, nurses and staff provide every day," said Ron Robinson, hospital president, Baptist Medical Center South.

U.S. News publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition, or added risk because of other health problems or age. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, the adequacy of nurse staffing levels and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties.

"A hospital that emerges from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of," said Avery Comarow, U.S. News Health Rankings editor. "Only about 15 percent of hospitals are recognized for their high performance as among their region's best. Just 3 percent of all hospitals earn a national ranking in any specialty."

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News produced the state and metro rankings.

The rankings have been published at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in print in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2014 guidebook, available for purchase in August.