U.S. News and World Report releases hospital rankings; locals make the list

U.S. News and World Report released its annual 2024-2025 Best Hospital rankings, revealing its findings on the performance of hospitals based on 30 categories of surgical services.

Of the nearly 5,000 hospitals evaluated , two Central Valley hospitals, Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno and Kaweah Health Medical Center in Visalia, were evaluated and named top hospitals, with Saint Agnes receiving honors as the top regional hospital.

The rankings accounted for a variety of surgical procedures and outcomes ranging from aortic valve surgery and heart bypass procedures to cancer treatment including prostate cancer screening and leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma treatment.

“Our mission as an organization is to provide consumers with decision support,” said U.S. News and World Report Chief Health Analyst Ben Harder. “To do that, in evaluating hospital quality, what we’ve done is look at millions of records of patients receiving care at different hospitals around the country and use information about what their condition was when they came to the hospital, what care or treatment they received and then how they did afterward to figure out which hospitals are good and what they’re good at.”

Harder said that in addition to helping patients choose hospitals, the ranking also assists hospitals in knowing where they excel and where they can make improvements.

Anecdotally, Harder said that he has heard from both insurance companies and hospitals about either constructing employee health networks based on the list or, in the hospital’s case, how they can improve to drive more patients to their specific medical centers.

“By looking, particularly at the outcomes that we measure…that kind of gap analysis can help them understand where there may be opportunities for improvement,” he said.

Saint Agnes and Kaweah Health Medical Center’s full rankings:

Saint Agnes

-Abdominal Aortic Aneurism Repair (overall rating) – N/R

-Back Surgery (spinal fusion) (overall rating) – Average

-Aortic Valve Surgery (overall rating) – Average

-Heart Bypass Surgery (overall rating) – Average

-Heart Failure (overall rating) – High Performing

-Colon Cancer Surgery (overall rating) – High Performing

-COPD (overall rating) – High Performing

-Diabetes (overall rating) – Average

-Gynecological Cancer Surgery (overall rating) – Average

-Heart Attack (overall rating) – High Performing

-Hip Replacement (overall rating) – Average

-Hip Fracture (overall rating) – Average

-Kidney Failure (overall rating) – High Performing

-Knee Replacement (overall rating) – Average

-Leukemia, Lymphoma & Myeloma (overall rating) – High  Performing

-Lung Cancer Surgery (overall rating) – Average

-Pneumonia (overall rating) – High Performing

-Prostate Cancer Screening (overall rating) – Average

-Stroke (overall rating) – High Performing

-TAVR (overall rating) – Average

Kaweah

-Abdominal Aortic Aneurism Repair (overall rating) – Average

-Back Surgery (spinal fusion) (overall rating) – Average

-Aortic Valve Surgery (overall rating) – Average

-Heart Bypass Surgery (overall rating) – Average

-Heart Failure (overall rating) – High Performing

-Colon Cancer Surgery (overall rating) – Average

-COPD (overall rating) – High Performing

-Diabetes (overall rating) – Average

-Gynecological Cancer Surgery (overall rating) – N/R

-Heart Attack (overall rating) – High Performing

-Hip Replacement (overall rating) – Average

-Hip Fracture (overall rating) – Average

-Kidney Failure (overall rating) – High Performing

-Knee Replacement (overall rating) – High Performing

-Leukemia, Lymphoma & Myeloma (overall rating) – Average

-Lung Cancer Surgery (overall rating) – Below Average

-Pneumonia (overall rating) – High Performing

-Prostate Cancer Screening (overall rating) – Average

-Stroke (overall rating) – High Performing

-TAVR (overall rating) – Average

Other top California hospitals this year included Cedars-Sinai and UCLA Medical Centers in Los Angeles, UC San Diego Health-La Jolla and Hillcrest Hospitals in San Diego, Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital in San Francisco and UCSF Health-UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco.