UCLA Health hospitals again rank No. 1 in Los Angeles, No. 7 nationally

UCLA Health hospitals in Westwood and Santa Monica ranked No. 1 in Los Angeles, No. 2 in California and No. 7 nationally in the annual U.S. News & World Report assessment released today.

It's the 29th consecutive year that U.S. News has placed UCLA Health on its honor roll, a distinction reserved for only 20 hospitals in the nation that deliver high-quality care across a range of specialties, procedures and conditions.

"UCLA Health is proud to once again be recognized for comprehensive excellence in patient care," said Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health and CEO of the UCLA Hospital System. "At our medical centers and clinics throughout the region, our highly skilled teams of physicians, nurses and health care professionals are committed to providing state-of-the art, compassionate care to patients and their families from greater Los Angeles and around the world."

U.S. News evaluated more than 4,500 hospitals across 16 specialties and nine procedures and conditions. To be included on the honor roll, hospitals must perform well in many of these areas of care. Only 158 hospitals were nationally ranked in even one specialty.

UCLA Health received top 10 rankings in 11 specialties: geriatrics (No. 4); nephrology (5); ophthalmology at the UCLA Stein and Doheny Eye Institutes (5); gastroenterology/gastrointestinal surgery (7); urology (7); psychiatry at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA (8); rheumatology (8); diabetes and endocrinology (9); ear, nose and throat (9); pulmonology (9) and neurology and neurosurgery (10).

"I applaud the dedication of UCLA's physicians, nurses and all employees in the UCLA Hospital System and the David Geffen School of Medicine who put patients first in everything they do," said Dr. John Mazziotta, vice chancellor for UCLA Health Sciences and CEO of UCLA Health. "Only through extraordinary teamwork, and by always striving to do better, can excellence in patient care be achieved."

U.S. News best hospitals rankings methodologies in most areas of care were based largely on objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and readmission rates, patient safety and volume, and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators.

"The 20 hospitals highlighted on this year's honor roll deliver state-of-the-art medical expertise across multiple specialties," said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. "Their U.S. News rankings reflect their commitment to providing their patients with high-quality care."

UCLA Health includes four hospitals on two campuses — Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center; UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica; UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital; and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA — and more than 170 clinics throughout Southern California. It also includes the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.