Good Samaritan among state’s top hospitals in new rankings

Several suburban hospitals, including Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Edward Hospital in Naperville and Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, rank among the 10 best in Illinois, according to rankings released today by U.S. News & World Report.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Rush University Medical Center, both in Chicago, are the top two in the state and among the top 20 in the country, the report states. More than 4,750 hospitals were evaluated to compile rankings for the 2021-22 Best Hospitals list.

For the sixth consecutive year, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota claimed the No. 1 spot on the Best Hospitals Honor Roll, followed by Cleveland Clinic and UCLA Medical Center. The honor roll features Northwestern at No. 10 and Rush at No. 19 in the country.

Following Northwestern and Rush in the state rankings are University of Chicago Medical Center, Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood and NorthShore University HealthSystem-Metro Chicago.

Lutheran General places seventh, followed by Edward Hospital and Good Samaritan. Two hospitals are tied at No. 10: Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana and Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

Illinois hospital representatives expressed satisfaction at the honor, particularly after a difficult year in dealing with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That so many of our system’s sites were honored among the highest performing in the nation is a testament to their commitment to our purpose of helping people live well,” Advocate Aurora Health President and CEO Jim Skogsbergh said.

“Faced with what may be the greatest health care crisis in their careers, our physicians, nurses, medical technicians, environmental services, and entire staff bravely met the challenge with compassion and grace,” said Kevin Poorten, senior vice president of Northwestern Medicine and president of Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital.

Patients should use all tools at their disposal when making decisions related to their health care, said Thomas Jordan, media relations specialist for the American Hospital Association. That includes talking with friends and family and consulting with doctors, nurses and other health care providers that know their specific health care needs, he said.

“This consultation can be especially important because as quality report cards and rankings have proliferated, the variation in measures, performance data and methodologies can sometimes leads to conflicting and confusing assessments of hospital performance,” he said.

In the U.S. News & World specialty rankings, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ranked No. 1 for cancer treatment, the Cleveland Clinic ranked No. 1 for cardiology and heart surgery, and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City ranked No. 1 in orthopedics.

This year’s report investigated racial disparities in health care and debuted health equity measures in the rankings, such as whether hospitals’ patients reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the community.