Northwestern ranked Illinois’ top hospital, according to US News

Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital is on a winning streak, ranking No. 1 in the state for the sixth year in a row, according to U.S. News World Report rankings released Tuesday, though it slipped a few spots nationally this year.

U.S. News again ranked Rush University Medical Center second in the state. Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood ranked third.

Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn ranked fourth in the state. Three hospitals tied for fifth: Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Evanston Hospital and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria.

U.S. News ranks hospitals on a number of measures, including patient survival and readmission rates, patient experience, and patient safety, among other categories.

Dean M. Harrison, president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, attributed his system’s success in the rankings to a mission that includes putting patients first and a “culture of excellence.”

Northwestern was also the only Illinois hospital to rank among the top 20 in the country, though this year it ranked 13th, down from eighth last year.

Northwestern ranked among the top 10 nationally in four specialties: cardiology and heart surgery, geriatrics, neurology and neurosurgery, and orthopedics.

University of Chicago Medical Center fell to eighth place in the state from third place the year before.

Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as its No. 1 hospital in the country, followed by the Cleveland Clinic and The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The organization adjusted its methodology this year, including more years of data and trying to penalize hospitals less for treating low-income patients and accepting high-risk patients transferred from other hospitals. U.S. News produced the ratings with research organization RTI International.

lschencker@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lschencker

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