by Tony Chen

The latest list is out at US News and World Reports. As part of this report, they did a nice 5-day diary at one of the hospitals, Vanderbilt.

And by the way, the best Children's Hospitals were also announced about a month ago.

I've posted before about what being "the best" really means in the hospital business. If it's all about reputation and academics, then where does that leave the small community hospital? Can't they be one of the best, too? Let me pose a question that I posed 2 years ago:

Well, let me ask the question I'm really trying to ask: this blog has been dedicated to helping hospitals become "world-class" organizations. if you don't happen to be an academic medical center, you really can't become a "destination" hospital that people would fly to. Given that, can you really ever have the reputation as a "Best Hospital." And thus, can you really ever be a world-class organization?

Of course, my answer is YES. Just look at Windber Medical Center. In some sense, that hospital had NO business surviving the collapse of that town. When the sole industry (coal-mining) left, that town should have quietly gone away. But instead, now that hospital is the bedrock/driver/growth engine of that town. Go figure. And I'm guessing that's just one story of many that we will never hear about in US News and World Reports.