WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is listed as one of “America's Best Hospitals” in five categories in rankings to be published in the 2009-2010 edition of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.
The rankings are accessible today (Thursday) online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals and in magazines on newsstands Tuesday, July 21. The rankings list the top 50 hospitals and medical centers, out of a total of 4,861 hospitals in the U.S., in each of 16 categories.
Wake Forest Baptist is ranked in respiratory disorders (20th), cancer (26th), kidney disease (26th), urology (41st) and gynecology (46th). The achievement of the gynecology ranking follows several years of building a world-class program at the Medical Center.
“I am thrilled to learn that we are ranked as one of the top programs in gynecology in the country,” said David C. Merrill, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “The credit for this achievement lies both with our excellent full-time faculty and the tremendous, state-of-the-art facilities at Wake Forest Baptist.”
The “America's Best Hospitals” guide lists a total of only 174 medical centers nationwide that are ranked in the top 50 in one or more of 16 specialties. Additional data are available online for another 1,500 hospitals that qualified to be considered but did not score high enough to be ranked in a specialty.
The rankings in 12 specialties, including the five in which Wake Forest Baptist was listed, are predominantly driven by data in four components: reputation, mortality rate, patient safety, and care-related factors such as nursing and patient services. The goal of the rankings is to identify medical centers that excel at treating a variety of demanding illnesses within a specialty. Four other specialties are ranked solely by reputation among physicians in each specialty.
“When the stakes are high, you want the best care you can get for someone close to you,” said Avery Comarow, health rankings editor for U.S. News & World Report. “These are hospitals that are used to getting the sickest patients.”
Wake Forest Baptist has been ranked in “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993.
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Media Contacts: Mark Wright, mwright@wfubmc.edu; (336) 716-3382; Bonnie Davis, bdavis@wfubmc.edu; or Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, (336) 716-4587.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (www.wfubmc.edu) is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University Physicians, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,056 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist also holds the Gold Seal of Approval™ from the Joint Commission, the nation’s esteemed standards-setting and accrediting body for health care quality. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeast in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.