MEMPHIS, Tenn. — U.S. News & World Report released their annual rankings on the best children's hospitals in the country, and two Memphis hospitals are ranked among them.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was ranked the #2 hospital in the country for pediatric cancer, their specialty.
"Our mission is to advance cures and find new ways to improve treatment for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and unparalleled clinical care,” said Dr. Ellis Neufeld, M.D., St. Jude clinical director, physician-in-chief and executive vice president. “I am deeply grateful for this recognition on behalf of everyone across the clinical enterprise, operations and support teams at St. Jude, to our Quality and Safety team, and those who make our work possible.”
Le Bonheur Children's Hospital was ranked in the top 50 for three categories; Pediatric Cardiology and Heart Surgery, Pediatric Gastroenterology and GI Surgery, and Pediatric Pulmonology and Lung Surgery.
The hospital was also ranked the #2 children's hospital in Tennessee.
"To have a top-flight pediatric heart program is really difficult, and Le Bonheur ranks among the best of the country, so they have a really strong program," said Ben Harder, the managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News.
In addition, the news agency added the Health Equity category in this year's rankings.
Health equity, according to the World Health Organization, is the absence of unjust and avoidable differences among groups of people, regardless of social, economic or demographic identification.
"Hospitals that get the best outcomes for kids get the best outcomes for kids across a range of different social and demographic factors, which is why we’ve included health equity in our rankings this year," Harder said.
U.S. News said they evaluate hospital performance in health equity by analyzing data on various dimensions of equity for historically underserved patients.
Le Bonheur received top marks in the equity of preventative care for Black residents when compared to the national average, although compared to the community they received a "moderately less equitable" score for Black residents.
Le Bonheur also received an "improving" score with regards to the trend of its health equity over the past five years, meaning their health equity is trending upward.
