US News and World Report recently ranked the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center among the top 50 hospitals in many specialized fields.
The department of cardiology and heart surgery was ranked 45th, digestive tract care was ranked 43rd, gynecology was 33rd, neurology and neurosurgery took 48th place, orthopedics was ranked 33rd, and rheumatology was number 43, in the annual hospital rankings.
The study included 188 hospitals, all of which are leading medical institutions that met the three requirements stipulated by U.S. News and World Report.
To be considered for the study, hospitals must currently be members in the Council of Teaching Hospitals, have a collusion with a medical school and fulfill a minimum of nine out of 17 points of medical technology.
According to a representative of U.S. News the study offers a starting point for consumers looking for medical care.
"The hospitals that we chose are noted especially for being top providers in cases of serious illnesses," he said.
The same source said the study's recognition of DHMC as a leading medical institution enhances the center's academic and financial potential.
The report's ranking system focused primarily on the quality of patient care rather than on the financial status of the hospitals. The report assigned an index number from one to 100, with 100 representing the high end of the spectrum, to the hospitals based on the four general criteria of reputation, mortality rate, technology and nursing care.
Approximately 2,400 American Medical Association board-approved specialists selected five hospitals they judged to be the best in a specific field. The responses were compiled over the last three years to generate the numbers representing the hospital's reputation.
One-third of the index number reflects the reputation associated with the hospital in question. For the fields of opthalmology, pediatrics, psychology and rehabilitation, reputation alone determined the ranking.
Data for the mortality rate was provided by Medstat Croup, Inc. The mortality rate was calculated as the ratio of actual compared to expected deaths, accounting for the patient's age and the disease's pathology.
Other considerations included the number of resident nurses in relation to the number of beds, the number of medical procedures to beds, geriatric services, discharge planning, and the extent of outpatient and community services encouraged by the hospital. Starting this year, the index no longer accounts for the number of doctors in relation to the number of beds and now includes cost-efficiency as a consideration.
The exact methodology of the analysis was created by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago in 1993 by analysts Craig Hill and Krishna Winfrey.
