US News ranks best hospitals nationally and in NJ (updated)

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Morristown Medical Center ranked as the No. 1 New Jersey hospital on the US News & World Reports Best Hospitals list for the fourth consecutive year, but shared the 2021-2022 honor with Hackensack University Medical Center.

For the sixth straight year, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. topped the national list, which was released on July 27.

The latest rankings covered 15 medical specialties: Cancer; Cardiology & Heart Surgery; Diabetes & Endocrinology; Ear, Nose & Throat; Gastroenterology & GI Surgery; Geriatrics; Gynecology; Neurology & Neurosurgery; Ophthalmology; Orthopedics; Psychiatry; Pulmonology & Lung Surgery; Rehabilitation; Rheumatology; and Urology. Out of more than 4,750 hospitals that were evaluated, 175 were nationally ranked in at least one specialty, while 531 were ranked among the Best Regional Hospitals in a state or metro area.

The top New Jersey hospitals, according to the magazine are:

1. Hackensack University Medical Center

1. Morristown Medical Center

3. Valley Hospital

4. Overlook Medical Center

5. Saint Barnabas Medical Center

6. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital

7. AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center

7. Jersey Shore University Medical Center

7. Cooper University Health Care-Camden

10. Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital

10. Jefferson Health-Stratford, Cherry Hill and Washington Township

10. Virtua Voorhees Hospital

Morristown and Hackensack tied for seventh place among New York Metro area hospitals. Valley, Overlook, Saint Barnabas, Robert Wood Johnson and Jersey Shore also made the metro list. New York Presbyterian-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell earned the top ranking for the region.

Among procedures and conditions, Morristown achieved the highest national ranking at No. 28 for Gynecology. The hospital also ranked 39th in orthopedics. Morristown came in at No. 42 for Cardiology and Heart surgery, with Hackensack not far behind at No. 45. Hackensack also ranked 50th for Neurology and Neurosurgery and 48th for Urology.

The highest national ranking went to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, which came in at No. 4 for rehabilitation. Hackensack Meridian Health’s JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison ranked 30th on that list.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center placed second on the Cancer rankings, behind the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Sloan Kettering is based in New York, but operates outpatient treatment facilities in Montvale, Basking Ridge and Middletown.

U.S. News said that data used in the 2021-22 best hospitals rankings were drawn from a period predating the COVID-19 pandemic and were not affected by the pandemic’s impact on hospitals. The magazine said its methodologies are based largely on objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and discharge-to-home rates, volume, and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators.

“This year’s expanded report from U.S. News includes new ratings for important procedures and conditions to help patients, in consultation with their doctors, narrow down their choice of hospital based on the specific type of care they need,’ said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on July 27, 2021 at 10:35 a.m. EDT to add Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s #2 ranking for cancer care and to note that Sloan Kettering operates three facilities in New Jersey.