How Good Are Those Hospital Rankings?
A quick look shows that these rankings are not all they’re cracked up to be. The methodology that U.S. News uses to rank hospitals yields a list that is flawed to the point of being nearly useless. It also may be counterproductive, since some of the so-called quality criteria U.S. News cites can encourage investments in higher-cost and lower-quality care. (Wall Street Journal)
Many of the top three hospitals are really no big surprise and have great reputations.
Yes, I definitely agree, they are exceptional institutions.
“It also may be counterproductive, since some of the so-called quality criteria U.S. News cites can encourage investments in higher-cost and lower-quality care.”
I guess that’s why think tanks and academic journals do studies not news organizations…
Who exactly at U.S. news did the study? I don’t have a Wall Street Journal account, so I can’t look it up…
Well I would say that most of the time news organization have experts helping them out, so it isn’t just a group of journalist thinking they can conduct complex economic studies of healthcare institutions.
If you have any sort of reasoning skills, you realize that having something be lower quality and cost more money is a bad choice 100% of the time.
Yes, exactly. I don’t understand how they could advocate that. I wish I could see the study, but sadly I too don’t have a WSJ subscription.
U.S. News really prides itself on its rankings. Maybe all of their rankings need a closer look.
So if I need to go to the doctor or to a hospital, which one is the best?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m pretty sure my insurance wouldn’t cover treatment at Johns Hopkins, even if it is rated #1.