“Best” hospitals in US get poor marks in new rating system

A new ranking system has found that some hospitals rated “best” by the annual US News and World Report are failing on criteria that is ignored by the report. Those metrics include how well a hospital provides access to care for people with low incomes and people of colour, whether the hospital avoids overtreatment, and the ratio of chief executive pay to average workers’ wages.

The new ranking system, developed by the Lown Institute, a non-partisan healthcare think tank, in partnership with Washington Monthly magazine, was announced 7 July.1 The Lown Institute Hospitals Index uses 42 performance measures to evaluate care at nearly 3300 hospitals.

The index is the first hospital ranking system to measure the degree …