UAB Hospital named top hospital in Alabama with eight specialty programs nationally ranked

A story that never gets old.

This week, U.S. News and World Report released their annual Best Hospitals edition. Once again, same as last year, UAB Hospital retained its top spot as the best hospital in Alabama. 

Top 50 National List

And they didn’t stop there on the state level. U.S. News also premiered their 2020-21 Best Hospitals national rankings.

In the latest report, the prestigious magazine, which has been ranking hospitals annually since 1990 placed eight UAB specialty programs in their national top 50 list. 

One program cracked the top 10, while six additional programs made it in the top 30.

What are the ranked programs? Drumroll please….

• Rheumatology at No. 10
• Gynecology at No. 15
• Otolaryngology at No. 22 
• Cardiology/heart surgery at No. 24
• Pulmonology/lung surgery at No. 25 
• Cancer at No. 25 
• Nephrology at No. 29
• Geriatrics at No. 49 

More good news –  UAB’s Cancer program, housed in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, notched its first top 25 ranking. 

High Performing

In addition to these top 50 programs, two additional UAB programs were rated “high-performing” specialties. They were gastroenterology/GI surgery and neurology/neurosurgery.

UAB was also recognized as being “high-performing” in eight adult procedures/conditions:

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Heart bypass surgery, heart failure
• Abdominal aortic aneurysm repair
• Aortic valve surgery
• Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)
• Colon cancer surgery
• Lung cancer surgery. 

How the Rankings Work

According to the U.S. News and World Report their  “Best Hospitals specialty rankings”s assess hospital performance in 16 specialties or specialty areas. In 12 of these, rankings are determined by an extensive data-driven analysis combining performance measures in three primary dimensions of health care: structure, process/expert opinion, and outcomes. In the four other specialties, ranking relies solely on expert opinion. U.S. News touts that they evaluate nearly 5000 hospitals.

Other Local Results

Along with UAB, locally St. Vincent’s Hospital was named the 3rd best hospital in the state of Alabama with “high performing” grades in adult procedures and condition categories. Princeton Baptist Medical Center attained a  “high performing” grades. Earlier this summer Children’s of Alabama also received high marks in the latest U.S. News and World Report in their Children Hospitals edition.