Hospital is No. 5 in U.S. and Best in the West in 2017-18 U.S. News & World Report

Photo by Susan Merrell

UCSF Medical Center has been named among the nation’s premier medical institutions for the 17th consecutive year, ranking as the fifth best hospital in the country and the top-ranked hospital in California, in U.S. News & World Report’s 2017-2018 Best Hospitals survey.

UCSF received elite Honor Roll status for exceptional performance in 15 medical specialties. It is the top-ranked hospital on the West Coast on the Honor Roll and the top center in California for cancer, diabetes, neurology and neurosurgery, respiratory and kidney disorders, and orthopedics. The annual listings for adult care were released Aug. 8, 2017.

U.S. News Best Hospitals 2017-18 1 Mayo Clinic

Rochester, Minn. 2 Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland, Ohio 3 Johns Hopkins Hospital

Baltimore 4 Massachusetts General Hospital

Boston 5 UCSF Medical Center

San Francisco 6 Univ. of Mich. Hospitals and Health Centers

Ann Arbor, Mich. 7 UCLA Medical Center

Los Angeles 8 New York-Presbyterian Hospital

New York 9 Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital

Stanford, Calif. 10 Hospitals of UPenn-Penn Presbyterian

Philadelphia Source: 2017-2018 U.S. News Best Hospitals survey

Honor Roll standing is intended to recognize exceptional performance in specialized, high-complexity inpatient care and is given to a small group of hospitals nationwide with high rankings in multiple Best Hospitals specialties. This selection process was revised extensively in 2016 to reflect a data-driven analysis of the safety, efficiency and appropriate delivery of the care provided.

Overall, UCSF ranked in the top 10 medical centers nationwide in 13 adult specialties: cancer; diabetes and endocrinology; ear, nose and throat; geriatrics; gynecology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; ophthalmology; orthopedics; psychiatry; pulmonology; rheumatology; and urology. UCSF also ranked among the nation’s top 25 hospitals in two other specialties: cardiology and heart surgery, and gastroenterology and GI surgery.

“This is a tremendous honor and validation of our commitment to providing the best care for every patient, including those with some of the most complex medical conditions,” said Mark R. Laret, chief executive officer and president of UCSF Health, which includes UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and health care providers throughout the Bay Area. “These scores reflect the outstanding dedication and effort that each member of our team provides on a daily basis.”

Building on its long-standing leadership in neurology and neuroscience, as well as cancer, UCSF is actively integrating and expanding the premier biomedical research, graduate-level education and patient care of both the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“We are extremely proud of the UCSF Health team, whose members work so hard, every day, to provide the highest quality, innovative care to our patients,” said Sam Hawgood, MBBS, chancellor of UC San Francisco. “Their work is at the heart of UCSF’s mission, and is integrated with, and informed by, our other missions of advancing medical research discoveries and graduate level education in the health sciences.”

In a separate set of pediatric rankings in June, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, with locations in Oakland and San Francisco, placed among the nation’s premier children’s hospitals in nine pediatric specialties and was first in Northern California in five of those: cancer, diabetes and endocrinology, neonatology, neurology and neurosurgery, and urology.

Brandon Sessler, PA-C, a physician assistant in the department of Orthopaedic Surgery, performs a basic neurological exam on Patricia Adams. UCSF Medical Center’s orthopedics specialty ranked sixth best in the nation in this year's U.S. News survey. Photo by Susan Merrell

UCSF Medical Center and the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals are the academic medical hospitals of UCSF, a graduate-level health sciences university. UCSF also consistently ranks among the nation’s best in U.S. News for advanced biomedical research and for education – specifically, its graduate schools of medicine, nursing and pharmacy. UCSF’s fourth graduate school, of dentistry, is also highly recognized, although U.S. News does not rank this discipline.

To determine the best hospitals nationally in adult specialties, U.S. News analyzed data from 4,658 hospitals, as well as the results of surveys from thousands of physicians nationwide. The analysis includes multiple clinical specialties, procedures and conditions. Scores are based on a variety of patient outcome and care-related factors, such as patient safety and nurse staffing. Only 152 hospitals were ranked in at least one specialty.

UCSF Medical Center also earned “high performance” ratings – the highest ratings possible – in eight common procedures within specialties: abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, aortic valve surgery, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, colon cancer surgery, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hip replacement and lung cancer surgery. U.S. News evaluated more than 4,500 hospitals for this portion of the survey.

Complete rankings are available on the U.S. News & World Report website.

UCSF Medical Center's Specialty Rankings Cancer: #10 Cardiology & Heart Surgery: #23 Diabetes & Endocrinology: #7 Ear, Nose & Throat: #10 Gastroenterology & GI Surgery: #17 Geriatrics: #10 Gynecology: #8 Nephrology: #5 Neurology & Neurosurgery: #5 Opthalmology: #10 Orthopedics: #6 Psychiatry: #10 Pulmonology: #6 Rheumatology: #7 Urology: #6 Source: 2017-2018 U.S. News Best Hospitals survey

UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises three top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area.