So Your Hospital's Ranked #1? Not So Fast
You've seen them. The hospital rankings blasted across the covers of magazines (and probably, if she was named, your doctor's office, too). But how real are they really? Do they just reflect good PR? And instead of their " reputations ," shouldn't they be more proud of their decrease in number of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs)? That's a position a Wall Street Journal op-ed writers want to know. The always eagerly-awaited U.S. News & World Report list of best-ranked hospitals for 2012-2013 was released last week Ezekiel K. Emmanuel, chairman of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Steinmetz, the senior research assistant, write that the highest-ranked hospitals "are always quick to tout their rankings in hopes of attracting new patients who will pay top dollar," and, of course, many Americans will use this list when they are selecting a hospital. But what these authors...