Area hospitals top-ranked nationally

Pittsburgh, it seems, is still a great place to get sick, according to the latest hospital rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

Allegheny General Hospital, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Magee-Womens Hospital and UPMC Health System all earned distinction on the list of 168 top-ranked hospitals in the country.

UPMC in Oakland earned special honors as the last of 16 hospitals to earn a position on the honor roll for 'demonstrating unusual excellence across the board' of specialties, the magazine said.

'The people here should feel good that they can get good care that compares with any place in America or the world,' said Dr. Freddie H. Fu, whose department of orthopedic surgery at UPMC ranked 13th in the nation.

To achieve honor roll status, UPMC had to earn exceptional evaluations in at least six of the 17 specialties included in the study. Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore topped the list, while University of Chicago Hospitals finished just ahead of UPMC at 15th.

Besides orthopedics, UPMC ranked sixth in ear, nose and throat, 10th in psychiatry, 11th in digestive disorders, 15th in cancer, 17th in pulmonary disease, 17th in rheumatology, 21st in heart, 23rd in hormonal disorders and 31st in geriatrics.

Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side also earned a high ranking in orthopedics, 40th, and finished 25th in cancer, 28th in digestive disorders and 41st in hormonal disorders.

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Oakland ranked fourth in pediatrics, a list topped by Children's Hospital Boston. Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland, listed separately from UPMC Health System in the study, finished 13th in gynecology.

U.S. News & World Report began identifying exceptional hospitals in 1990 and since 1993 has carried out this evaluation through the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

The Research Center trimmed a list of 6,116 hospitals to 1,878 by requiring membership in the Council of Teaching Hospitals, affiliation with a medical school or nine technology services from a prescribed list of 17. Hospitals were then evaluated on reputation, mortality ratio and various other factors, of which most information came from the American Hospital Association.

Tim Puko can be reached at (412) 320-7975.