For the past 15 years, parents have turned to U.S. News & World Report’s national rankings of children’s hospitals when searching for specialized pediatric care. To help parents find those services closer to home, this year’s annual list of best children’s hospitals also includes state and regional rankings. In the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, four pediatric hospitals have been ranked among the best in the seven-state Mid-Atlantic Region.
Children’s National Hospital in D.C., secured the No. 2 spot on the list of best children’s hospitals in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Nationally ranked in 10 pediatric specialties, including No. 1 in neonatology, Children’s National also earned the No. 7 spot on the 2021-2022 Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll, which recognizes the 10 hospitals ranked highest in multiple specialties.
“It is always spectacular to be named one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals, but this year more than ever,” said Dr. Kurt Newman, president and CEO of Children’s National, in a recent press release. “Every member of our organization helped us achieve this level of excellence, and they did it while sacrificing so much in order to help our country respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In the No. 4 spot is Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, which is nationally ranked in 10 pediatric specialties, including cancer and nephrology. Inova L. J. Murphy Children’s Hospital in Falls Church and the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital (UMCH) in Baltimore tied for No. 13 in the region. Each is nationally ranked in one pediatric specialty: Inova at No. 40 for neonatology and UMCH at No. 41 for cardiology and heart surgery.
To create its rankings, U.S. News studied data from close to 200 pediatric medical centers across the nation in areas such as patient safety, infection prevention and adequacy of nurse staffing. The research team also asked more than 15,000 pediatric specialists where they would send their sickest patients. This year, only 89 children’s hospitals ranked in at least one of the 10 pediatric specialties evaluated by U.S. News.
