Baptist Jacksonville and Baptist South recognized nationally in several specialties and procedures

Hospitals rank 4th in state by U.S. News & World Report

Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville and Baptist Medical Center South have been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top hospitals nationally for women's services.

Baptist Jacksonville and Baptist South, which share a license, ranked 50th nationally for gynecology services out of thousands of hospitals evaluated. The ranking looks at a host of technologies and services including robotic surgery, digital mammography and image-guided radiation therapy, among other factors.

The hospitals were also ranked as the fourth best overall in Florida out of more than 250 hospitals. Baptist is the only community hospital to be recognized as a top hospital in Florida by U.S. News.

In addition, the 2016-2017 report highlighted Baptist Jacksonville and Baptist South as high performing nationally in diabetes and endocrinology; neurology and neurosurgery; gastroenterology and GI surgery; and nephrology.

Eight procedures were also highlighted as high performing, including abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), colon cancer surgery, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, hip replacement, knee replacement and lung cancer surgery.

The U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, now in their 27th year, help guide patients to hospitals that deliver outstanding care across 25 specialties, procedures and conditions. The Best Hospitals methodologies include objective measures such as patient survival, the number of times a given procedure is performed, infection rates, adequacy of nurse staffing and more.

"The announcement of Baptist Jacksonville being named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation's best hospitals is an honor," said Michael A. Mayo, Baptist Jacksonville hospital president. "This designation recognizes the high standards of quality and patient care our caregivers provide daily. Being ranked as the 4th Best Hospital in Florida and ranked 50th for gynecology services in the nation, further demonstrates our commitment to continual improvement and innovation by all of our nurses, physicians and support team members."

"This recognition certainly confirms our belief that we have an outstanding hospital with great physicians, nurses and ancillary team members," added Ron Robinson, hospital president of Baptist South.

Wolfson Children's Hospital was also ranked nationally in June as 46th out of the best 50 children's hospitals in the nation for gastroenterology and GI surgery, and 48th out of 50 in pediatric neurology and neurosurgery.

Baptist Medical Center Beaches was recognized as high performing in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure and Baptist Medical Center Nassau in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

U.S. News evaluates nearly 5,000 hospitals nationwide, said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News.

"A hospital that emerged from our analysis as one of the best has much to be proud of," Harder said.

For 2016-17, there were 153 hospitals ranked in at least one specialty, while 1,628 received a high-performing rating in one or more specialties, procedures or conditions. In rankings by state and metro area, U.S. News recognized hospitals that were high performing across multiple areas of care. Best Hospitals was produced by U.S. News with RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

The rankings were published in the U.S. News' Best Hospitals 2017 guidebook, available August 1.