Hospitals' quality of care among nation's best

A nationwide survey, based on "an all-inclusive measure of a hospital's quality of care," placed the Hospitals in the top 1 percent of the nation's 1,961 major medical centers in nine of the 12 areas studied.

The survey was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center and published in the Aug. 12 issue of U.S. News & World Report. It combined a poll of 2,550 physicians with objective data on nine indicators, ranging from Medicare mortality data and available technology to the number of registered nurses per bed.

The Hospitals' programs rated in the top 10 include cancer, gastroenterology and endocrinology. Others in the top 1 percent (ranked 19 or better) include gynecology, geriatrics, neurology, orthopedics, otolaryngology and rheumatology. The three remaining programs studied -- cardiology, urology and AIDS care -- scored in the top 2 percent.

The University of Chicago earned the highest rankings of any Illinois hospital in nine of the 12 areas that were part of the quality-of-care survey. Only three other Illinois hospitals (Northwestern, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes and the University of Illinois at Chicago) made the top 1 percent in any areas of the quality-of-care survey.