Florida Hospital System (see more articles like this)

Florida Hospital is honored to be the only Central Florida hospital named in three of the 2005 U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Hospitals lists for the following categories:
 Neurology & Neurosurgery
 Kidney Disease
 Hormonal Disorders (Diabetes and Thyroid Conditions)

This is the seventh year in a row that Florida Hospital has been ranked among the nation’s elite as one of U.S.News & World Report’s America’s Best Hospitals. This year, in all three categories, Florida Hospital treated more patients than any other hospital on the list.  According to the publication, this year “hospitals had to meet a series of progressively tougher standards to be ranked.” Overall, fewer hospitals were named to the list in 2005. This year, the publication analyzed 6,007 hospitals and only 176 were qualified enough to be ranked in even a single specialty.

The 16th annual edition of U.S.News & World Report’s America’s Best Hospitals is a resource for consumers who are seeking maximum care in the diagnosis, treatment and management of a difficult medical problem. According to U.S.News & World Report, “These hospitals excel partly because their doctors perform large numbers of tricky and risky procedures. Study upon study has shown the critical role of volume.”

According to the publication, “Ranked hospitals tend to adhere more closely to advanced treatment guidelines, to incorporate new findings into patient care, and to conduct research that gives desperately ill patients more options.”

In 12 of the 17 specialties, a hospital must first meet one of three standards to be considered: membership in the Council of Teaching Hospitals (COTH), affiliation with a medical school, or at least nine technology services out of a prescribed list of 17. In each specialty, a hospital must perform a given number of procedures or be cited by at least one physician in the past three years of U.S.News & World report surveys. These hospitals received a score that equally weighs reputation, mortality, and a group of care-related factors such as nursing.

The July 18th issue will hit newsstands July 11. For a complete list of the rankings, go to www.usnews.com or call Florida Hospital Media Relations at 407/303-8217.