For its 2025-2026 list, U.S. News evaluated around 4,400 hospitals and healthcare facilities in the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of Hospitals.
U.S. News evaluated facilities across 15 specialties. On this year's list, 152 hospitals were ranked in at least one specialty.
To qualify as a top specialty hospital, institutions must meet one of the following criteria:
U.S. News ranked three of the 15 specialties — ophthalmology, psychiatry, and rheumatology — based on a survey of experts.
For the other 12 specialties, U.S. News determined the rankings based largely on federal and industry data. The 12 data-driven specialties are:
1. Cancer
2. Cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery
3. Diabetes and endocrinology
4. Ear, nose, and throat
5. Gastroenterology and GI surgery
6. Geriatrics
7. Obstetrics and gynecology
8. Neurology and neurosurgery
9. Orthopedics
10. Pulmonology and lung surgery
11. Rehabilitation
12. Urology
To achieve a rating in a specific specialty, hospitals had to meet a specialty-specific volume/discharge requirement. If a hospital did not meet the volume/discharge requirement, hospitals had to receive nominations from at least 1% of the specialists responding to the reputational surveys over the past three years.
According to U.S. News, 2,216 hospitals were eligible for consideration among the 12 data-driven specialties. U.S. News scored eligible facilities based on four factors (note that cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pulmonology and lung surgery, and rehabilitation had slightly different methodologies, detailed below):
Cardiology, heart and vascular surgery programs, neurology and neurosurgery programs, obstetrics and gynecology programs, and pulmonology and lung surgery programs were also judged on a fifth factor: public transparency.
For these programs, public transparency was weighted at 3% while process/expert opinion was weighted at 12%.
For rehabilitation programs, patient experience and public transparency were not considered. Instead, outcomes were weighted at 30%, structure was weighted at 38%, and process/expert opinion was weighted at 32%.
Hospitals' top strategic priorities — and what they mean for development leaders
U.S. News recognized 20 facilities on an "Honor Roll." According to U.S. News, the facilities on this list demonstrate "excellence across a broad range of inpatient services." The honor roll awardees, listed in alphabetical order, are:
In this year's edition of the Best Hospitals list, U.S. News also included a "Best Regional Hospitals" list, featuring the hospitals recognized as No. 1 or tied for No. 1 in the 25 most-populous U.S. metropolitan areas:
"For most Americans, health care decisions are made close to home," said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News. "The Best Regional Hospitals rankings underscore the difference high-performing local medical centers make."
"[T]he recognition of 504 Best Regional Hospitals demonstrating superior outcomes, alongside the 20 hospitals on the national Honor Roll, highlights hospitals achieving high standards of care locally and nationally," said Chelsey Wen, senior health data analyst at U.S. News. "U.S. News' Best Hospitals rankings and ratings offer a comprehensive resource for identifying institutions that excel in patient-focused care across the country. Thirteen percent of the over 4,400 evaluated hospitals earned a Best Hospitals designation."
For the full U.S. News & World Report "Best Hospitals" rankings across various specialties, click here.
(U.S. News & World Report 2025-2026 Best Hospitals rankings, 7/29; U.S. News & World Report 2025-2026 Best Hospital methodology, accessed 7/28; U.S. News & World Report press release, 7/29)
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