U.S. News & World Report Tuesday released its latest Best Hospitals rankings, with three New York hospitals among the 17 hospitals that made it onto the national Honor Roll by excelling in six or more specialties.

New York-Presbyterian, NYU Langone Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital ranked No. 6, No. 15 and No. 16, respectively, on the national list. New York-Presbyterian moved up one slot since last year, and is nationally ranked in 15 specialties. NYU Langone moved down from No. 14 in 2013, and was ranking in 13 specialties, adding a new category, pulmonology, over last year. Mount Sinai was not on the 2013 Honor Roll.Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Hospital for Special Surgery are top-ranked nationally in cancer care and orthopedics, respectively. NYU Langone's Hospital for Joint Diseases is No. 4 in orthopedics. Three New York hospitals ranked nationally for cardiac care and heart surgery: New York-Presbyterian (No. 3); St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, LI (No. 9); and Mount Sinai Hospital (No. 10).In the New York area, all but one of last year's top 10 hospitals remained on the list this year; Montefiore Medical Center fell from No. 7 to No. 15. North Shore University Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital tied for 10th place. The list of national rankings by specialty is at www.usnews.com/best-hospitals .In theory, patients are swayed by the rankings to choose one hospital over another—or at least that is what hospital marketing executives count on. The Best Hospitals designation appears heavily in advertising campaigns. Rivalries abound."Since the inception of the revered list 25 years ago, MSK has held either the first or second spot each year," reads Memorial Sloan Kettering's press release. "MSK's singular focus on cancer means the hospital far outranks its neighbors for cancer care."The annual survey uses death rates for patients with challenging cases, doctor surveys and other data to rank hospitals in 16 specialties, with four specialties—ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and rheumatology—based on reputations alone. The methodology was changed this year to give a higher weight to patient safety in the 12 data-driven categories.

Barbara Benson contributed to this article.