How Philly-area hospitals fared in the latest U.S. News & World Report hospital ranking

Penn Medicine’s West Philadelphia hospitals earned the Philadelphia region’s top honors on the latest U.S. News & World Report scorecard of the nation’s 20 best hospitals.

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, ranked as a combined entity, were the only Philadelphia-area hospitals recognized on the 2023-24 honor roll, which was unveiled last week.

But don’t expect to see these honors on a Penn billboard.

Penn Medicine CEO Kevin Mahoney said last year that the rankings are flawed, and the health system would no longer pay to use U.S. News’ logo in advertising. (Penn also no longer participates in U.S. News’ medical school rankings.)

“I think all we’re doing is selling U.S. News & World Report magazines,” Mahoney said this week, reaffirming his position.

He added that Penn can’t stop U.S. News from ranking its hospitals, because the ranking methodology uses publicly available data.

Eric Gertler, U.S. News’ chief executive officer, told The Inquirer last year that the rankings are sound and had served as a valuable patient resource for decades.

Breaking down the rankings

Despite not engaging in the rankings, Penn’s Philadelphia hospitals earned the most national rankings among the region’s health systems on the specialty services broken out by U.S. News.

Penn’s paired hospitals — its flagship HUP and Penn Presbyterian (HUP-PPMC) — ranked 10th nationally for cancer treatment. The next Philly cancer hospital was Temple Health’s Fox Chase Cancer Center, ranking 33rd nationally.

The hospital duo of HUP-PPMC also ranked 7th for ear, nose, and throat. Penn was 8th in neurology and neurosurgery — specialties for which Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City ranked 20th and 27th, respectively.

Paoli Hospital placed highest among Main Line Health facilities overall, ranking 10th in Pennsylvania.

Specialty hospitals

On the state level, Jefferson’s Center City hospital ranked 2nd overall in Pennsylvania, and two of the system’s affiliated specialty hospitals ranked nationally.

Wills Eye Hospital ranked 2nd out of 10 in ophthalmology. Rothman Orthopaedic Institute ranked 20th in orthopedics, five spots below HUP-PPMC.

Philadelphia was also highlighted in the children’s hospitals’ honor roll.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia ranked 4th nationally, and was honored as the best children’s hospital for orthopedics in the nation.