Lurie Children’s Hospital makes it back on to U.S. News’ list of best in the country

For the first time in years, Lurie Children’s Hospital has broken back on to a list of the top children’s hospitals in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report.

U.S. News has named Lurie to its honor roll this year, meaning it considers Lurie to be among the top 11 children’s hospitals in the nation.

Though U.S. News has long ranked Lurie as the No. 1 children’s hospital in Illinois, it hadn’t made the publication’s honor roll since 2018, after sitting on the list for years. No other Illinois children’s hospital made the organization’s honor roll.

This year, Lurie tied with two other hospitals — both in Ohio — for best children’s hospital in the Midwest, after ranking third in the Midwest last year.

“We’re obviously incredibly, incredibly proud to be on the honor roll and especially No. 1 in the state,” said Dr. Marcelo Malakooti, chief medical officer at Lurie. He credited Lurie’s improvement to its focus on quality, safety and outcomes, and continuing to look for opportunities to do better.

The rankings, he said, are validation “for families that have to make really difficult decisions.”

“It just provides them with that assurance that if they’re looking for the best care for their kid, if you look at the honor roll that’s a measure of that,” Malakooti said.

U.S. News ranked UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital as the No. 2 children’s hospital in Illinois, an honor it’s earned for six consecutive years. Comer ranked this year as No. 14 in the Midwest, up two spots from last year.

To come up with the rankings, U.S. News and RTI International, a North Carolina-based research firm, collected and analyzed data from 114 children’s hospitals and surveyed thousands of pediatric specialists. They looked at factors such as patient survival, infection rates, staffing and adherence to best practices.

U.S. News is one of a number of organizations that rank and rate hospitals each year, with each group using its own methodology. Hospitals tend to pay close attention to rankings, with those that do well touting them in advertising to attract more patients.

Health care experts say consumers should use rankings and ratings as one piece of information, along with health insurance coverage, convenience and their doctors’ recommendations, when choosing where to receive care.

This year’s U.S. News’ honor roll included 11 hospitals instead of the usual 10 because two hospitals tied for 10th place, said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News & World Report. The organization does not publicly assign rankings within the honor roll.

Harder said Lurie’s improvement in certain specialties helped it move back onto the honor roll this year. For example, it moved to sixth place from 11th in the country for gastroenterology and GI surgery, partly because of improved survival after liver transplants. Also, for neonatology, Lurie jumped to 10th from 23rd in the nation because of better infection prevention, Harder said.

Malakooti said the hospital has continued to focus on quality, safety and outcomes, constantly looking for opportunities to improve.

Lurie also ranked eighth in the country for nephrology, sixth for neurology and neurosurgery and third for urology. Lurie had 11 specialties ranked among the top 50 in the country.

Comer had four specialties ranked among the top 50 in the nation, up from three last year.

“We’re proud of the progress we’re seeing across all of our programs, and we remain focused on strengthening outcomes, advancing discovery, and ensuring every child who comes through our doors receives the highest-quality care,” said Dr. John Cunningham, physician in chief of Comer and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago, in a news release.