Duke University Hospital ranks as the best in North Carolina for the 13th consecutive year, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual list published Tuesday.
The Durham hospital was followed by UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh and ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville.
The order of the top four hospitals was unchanged from last year, while ECU edged out three hospitals that tied for the No. 6 ranking: Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, First Health Moore Regional in Pinehurst and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem.
Three hospitals tied for No. 9: Mission Hospital of Asheville, Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte and Duke Regional Health in Raleigh.
None of the N.C. hospitals make the publication’s “Best Hospitals Honor Roll” of 20 hospitals with an extraordinary range of excellence in clinical specialties. Vanderbilt University Medical Center was the only Southeast hospital to make that list, which is dominated by academic medical centers.
U.S. News & World Report has ranked hospitals since 1990 and uses data from the U.S. government and medical professionals. It weighs various measures such as outpatient data, risk-adjusted mortality rates, patient experience and the level of nursing care.
Duke received high rankings in 12 specialty areas, including ophthalmology (7th) obstetrics and gynecology (11th) and cardiology (25th).
Nineteen N.C. hospitals were included in the study.
Hospitals often use the U.S. News rankings in their advertising and promotional materials.
Business North Carolina’s annual hospital rankings in March include the U.S. News study in its report. This year’s BNC rankings rated Duke University Hospital as No. 1, followed by Moses Cone, UNC Hospitals, Duke Regional and UNC Rex.
