U.S. News & World Report Names Lurie Children’s Hospital #1 in Illinois

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago again has been recognized as a Best Children’s Hospital for 2021-22 by U.S. News & World Report and ranked #1 in Illinois. Lurie Children’s is once again the highest ranked children’s hospital in the State in all 10 specialties.

Lurie Children’s also tied for the #3 spot in the region, which includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. This is the first year that children’s hospitals are ranked by state and region.

Nationally, Lurie Children’s has three specialties in the top 10 – Urology (#7), Neonatology (#9) and Cardiology/Heart Surgery (#9). Lurie Children’s is among only 21 children’s hospitals nationally ranked in all 10 specialties.

“We take great pride in the excellent care provided at Lurie Children’s, and the recognition from US News further validates this for us.  We are grateful for our exceptionally talented people who do this work each and every day,” said Tom Shanley, MD, President & CEO of Lurie Children’s. “We are committed to advancing pediatric medicine and improving outcomes for children through innovative care and research and a strong focus on quality.”

The annual Best Children’s Hospitals rankings and ratings, now in their 15th year, are designed to assist patients, their families and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to receive care for challenging health conditions.

For 2021-22, U. S. News ranked the top 50 centers in each of these 10 pediatric specialties: cancer, cardiology & heart surgery, diabetes & endocrinology, gastroenterology & gastrointestinal surgery, neonatology, nephrology, neurology & neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology & lung surgery and urology. Debuting this year, the Best Children’s Hospitals rankings featured expanded offerings that include state rankings and multi-state regional rankings.

“When choosing a hospital for a sick child, many parents want specialized expertise, convenience and caring medical professionals,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News.  “The Best Children’s Hospitals rankings have always highlighted hospitals that excel in specialized care. As the pandemic continues to affect travel, finding high-quality care close to home has never been more important.”

The Best Children’s Hospitals methodology factors objective measures such as patient outcomes, including mortality and infection rates, as well as available clinical resources and compliance with best practices. To calculate the Best Children’s Hospitals rankings, U.S. News gathered relevant data from children’s hospitals in early 2020 and from pediatric physicians and other healthcare organizations in 2021; because of the pandemic, data collection from children’s hospitals was not repeated in 2021.

RTI International, a North Carolina-based research and consulting firm, collected and analyzed data from 118 children’s hospitals and surveyed thousands of pediatric specialists. More than 100 pediatric specialists and other experts provided input through methodology working groups.

This year’s rankings will be published online and in the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals 2022” guidebook (ISBN 9781931469975), available in stores October 5.

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