Keck Hospital of USC

For the eighth consecutive year, the hospitals of Keck Medicine of USC have been named among the best in the country by U.S. News & World Report, a distinction only 3 percent of the analyzed hospitals receive. The magazine’s annual “Best Hospitals” rankings recognize hospitals in the United States that provide the best overall patient care, as well as specialized treatment in areas like cancer and urology.

Keck Medical Center of USC, which consists of Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital, maintained its Top 3 ranking on the list of Best Hospitals in metro Los Angeles (No. 3). The medical center also increased its rankings among the Best Hospitals in California (No. 8), moving up one spot from last year. The medical center has been highly ranked since having been purchased by the university in 2009.

“Keck Medicine of USC is honored to be ranked among the country’s best hospitals and clinical programs for the eighth year running,” said Tom E. Jackiewicz, MPH, senior vice president and CEO of Keck Medicine of USC. “Our faculty physicians, nurses and staff work tirelessly to ensure that we provide exceptional medicine to our patients and I am delighted to see their efforts recognized on a national scale.”

The medical center also performed well in a number of specialty rankings, securing a Top 50 placement in seven specialties. The USC Roski Eye Institute remained the institution’s top-performing service line for the 23rd consecutive year (No. 11). The USC Institute of Urology had the largest increase since 2015 out of the hospital’s specialties and received its highest-ever ranking (No. 15). The USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center also moved up considerably for its highest ranking ever (No. 18). Keck Medical Center also increased its ranking in geriatrics (No. 21), and is newly ranked in orthopaedics (No. 22), nephrology (No. 37) and cardiology (No. 48). Four additional service lines were ranked as High Performing: gastroenterology & GI surgery; neurology & neurosurgery; pulmonology; diabetes & endocrinology.

“As a university-based medical center, we are proud these rankings reflect the daily commitment our faculty physicians make to world-class patient care complemented by the innovative research of our physician-scientists that keeps our patients at the center of the latest treatments and therapies,” said Rohit Varma, MD, MPH, interim dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC who also is president of USC Care, the medical enterprise’s faculty physician group. “Being recognized in these rankings is an honor that continues to motivate us to do what is in the best interest of our patients.”

For 2016-17, U.S. News evaluated hospitals in 16 adult specialties and ranked the top 50 in most of the specialties. Three percent of the nearly 5,000 hospitals that were analyzed for Best Hospitals 2016-17 were nationally ranked in even one specialty. Objective measures such as patient survival and safety data, adequacy of nurse staffing and other data largely determined the rankings in most specialties. A few other specialty rankings, including Ophthalmology, are weighted more heavily on reputation data.

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. U.S. News used the same data to produce the state and metro rankings.

The rankings are available at http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2017 guidebook, available on newsstands Aug. 30.

— Meg Aldrich