Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health ranks in all 10 pediatric specialties; two in top five
Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health has once again been distinguished as Indiana’s only nationally ranked children’s hospital by U.S. News & World Report, which released its 2020-21 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings today. Riley at IU Health achieved national ranking in 10 pediatric specialties, with two programs earning top five status. Its urology program placed second in the nation, and its cardiology and heart surgery program placed fifth in the nation.
This year, Riley at IU Health is one of only 24 children’s hospitals in the country to rank in all ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News. To achieve this national distinction, pediatric hospitals must prove that they excel in caring for the sickest, most medically complex patients.
Based on a combination of clinical data and reputation among pediatric specialists around the country, Riley at IU Health ranked in each of these areas, including:
- Cancer
- Cardiology & Heart Surgery
- Diabetes & Endocrinology
- Gastroenterology & GI Surgery
- Neonatology
- Nephrology
- Neurology & Neurosurgery
- Orthopedics
- Pulmonology
- Urology
“Our core value at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health is to provide safe care to children,” said Dr. Elaine Cox, chief medical officer of Riley Children’s Health. “This survey proves that Riley offers the best quality of care for kids and it drives us to continually improve and refine our skills to be the best we can be for our community.”
U.S. News introduced the Best Children’s Hospitals rankings in 2007 to help families find the best medical care available for their children. The rankings provide detailed information about each hospital’s performance.
To gather clinical data, U.S. News & World Report sent a clinical survey with more than 1,000 questions to pediatric hospitals and surveyed nearly 13,000 pediatric specialists and subspecialists. Eighty five percent of each hospital’s score relied on patient outcomes and the care-related resources each hospital makes available. The survey included three parts: structure (staffing ratios, recommended services, alignment of personnel); process (reputation score, measures like hand-washing, vaccination rates, monitoring the right things at the right intervals); and outcomes (mortality rates, infections, delays in care, neurologic complications). The survey asked physicians around the country to give the names of up to ten hospitals in their specialty that provide the best care to patients with serious conditions, without considering location or expense.
