Mayo Gets Perfect Score for Gastroenterology, GI Surgery - Medscape

The Mayo Clinic stands out among hospitals nationwide for gastroenterology and gastrointestinal (GI) surgery, according to US World & News Report. In its annual ranking of the best hospitals in the nation for gastroenterology and GI surgery, the Rochester, Minnesota health system earned the top spot, followed by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Rounding out the top 5 list for 2019 – 2020 are the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

This year marks 30th year US News has ranked hospitals, and with the anniversary come some important methodological changes. For the first time, the assessment has incorporated hospitals' performance on key patient experience measures and their performance on the risk-adjusted Discharging Patients to Home outcome measure, according to a news release. Another update is the use of an enhanced risk-adjustment model to avoid unfairly penalizing hospitals that treat higher-acuity patients.

US News evaluated 1549 hospitals in gastroenterology and GI surgery for this year's report. To be included in the analysis, hospitals had to treat at least 549 Medicare inpatients in the specialty area in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Rank order was determined by performance on quantitative measures such as patient survival, volume of high-risk patients, patient experience, nurse staffing, and advanced clinical technologies. The top 50 scoring hospitals are nationally ranked, the top 10% are deemed "high performing," and the remaining hospitals within the specialty are rated but are not ranked.

This year, Mayo Clinic achieved an overall score of 100 out of 100, reflecting excellence ratings in 30-day survival rates relative to other hospitals that treat similarly complex conditions; the frequency of discharging patients to home compared with another facility; patient-reported experience of care; and relative volume of high-risk patients.

In addition, the hospital received top grades for nurse staffing; the availability of advanced technologies, such as stereotactic radiosurgery and transplant services; and patient services, such as translators and wound-management services. It garnered positive consideration for being a certified provider of advanced trauma care, having certified intensivists, and its being recognized as a Magnet hospital.

The rankings also factor in results from expert opinion surveys conducted over 3 years. Nearly 40% of gastroenterology and GI surgery specialists surveyed in 2017, 2018, and 2019 cited Mayo Clinic as one of the top hospitals for challenging gastroenterology and GI surgery patients.

In terms of procedures, Mayo Clinic qualifies as high performing for colon cancer surgery, earning an excellent or very high rating across most quality indicators except readmission prevention (average) and influenza immunization of workers (fewer than average).

Of the hospitals evaluated for this specialty, Mayo Clinic was the only one with a score above 90%. As second ranked, Cedars-Sinai had an overall score of 88.6%, followed by the Johns Hopkins Hospital, with an overall score of 86.8%. Both achieved ratings of excellent, above average, or very high on most of the outcomes and experience measures and for key programs, services, and staff. Both were also rated as high performing for colon cancer surgery, with Cedars-Sinai receiving excellent or very high ratings for most indicators except length of stay (average) and readmission prevention (average). The exceptions for Johns Hopkins' excellent or very high ratings were 30-day survival (average), length of stay (poor), and readmissions (average).

The scores for the top 10 ranked hospitals for gastroenterology and GI surgery in this year's report are as follows:

1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota  100

2. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles  88.6

3. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore  86.8

4. Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland  84.7

5. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston  75.8

6. UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles  74.2

7. Mayo Clinic-Phoenix  71.3

8. UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Pittsburgh  71.0

9. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City  70.5

10. New York–Presbyterian Hospital–Columbia and Cornell, New York City  68.7

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