U.S. News and World Report unveils 2017-18 Best Hospitals

Now in their 28th year, U.S. News and World Report has revealed their 2017-18 Best Hospitals, and it's the Mayo Clinic topping this year's list, a feat they also accomplished last year.

The Cleveland Clinic ranked second, followed by Johns Hopkins Hospital third, a step up from last year's ranking of fourth.

The rankings are formulated by analyzing objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and readmission rates, volume, patient experience, patient safety and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators. This year, there was an increase in data, with five years of Medicare data covering more than 60 million hospitalizations being used to calculate Procedures and Conditions ratings. In previous years, three years' data was used.

For the Best Regional Hospitals, procedures and conditions ratings, which are based on completely objective data, were emphasized more than specialty rankings. U.S. News also modified its measurements so as to not penalize hospitals for treating low-income patients or for accepting high-risk cases transferred from other hospitals, U.S. News said in a statement. Finally, U.S. News refined how it measured patient volume to improve comparability among hospitals.

Also recognized were 535 Best Regional Hospitals, which were ranked by state and metro based on their performance in both complex and common care.

When it came to specialties, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ranked No. 1 in cancer. Cleveland Clinic is ranked at the top for cardiology & heart surgery and Hospital for Special Surgery was first in orthopedics.

Here are the 2017-18 Best Hospitals:

• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
• Cleveland Clinic
• Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
• Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
• University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, Ann Arbor
• Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
• New York-Presbyterian Hospital, N.Y.
• Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital, Stanford, Calif.
• Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
• Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis
• Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
• UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, Pittsburgh
• University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora
• Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Philadelphia
• Duke University Hospital, Durham, N.C.
• Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
• NYU Langone Medical Center, New York
• Mayo Clinic Phoenix

Twitter: @BethJSanborn