Mass. General Hospital is No. 1!

View of Mass General Hospital and the Longfellow Bridge by Chris Devers via Flickr

After 22 years on the top of the heap, Johns Hopkins Hospital was knocked out of the number one spot on U.S. News’ annual hospital rankings by Mass. General Hospital this week, a testament to the great work being done by the hospital staff. The Mass. General received top honors thanks to its excellence in 16 adult and 4 pediatric specialties, and due to tweaks in the ranking formulas this year, which relied less on a hospital’s reputation (what other physicians think of their performance) and more on quantifiable measures like mortality rates, nurse to patient ratios, and use of advance technologies (here here!). Brigham and Women’s Hospital also made the list, ranked number nine out of 17 outstanding hospitals.

While this is fabulous news for us Bostonians, perhaps the best thing to come out of the win is the Mayor’s response. Menino is so excited about the ranking that he’s decided to hold a Duck Boat “rolling rally” through town for the hospital’s staff. Getting the city excited about the people who are helping to save lives daily definitely deserves a parade. We may not be Title town anymore when it comes to sports, so why not extend the victory celebration to the many, many winners among us? Well done Menino.